Ran Brosh

May 16, 2024 | cell.com | Raquel Ordoñez |Weimin Zhang |Gwen Ellis |Yinan Zhu |André M. Ribeiro-dos-Santos |Ran Brosh | +5 more

Genomic context critically modulates regulatory function but is difficult to manipulate systematically. The murine insulin-like growth factor 2 (Igf2)/H19 locus is a paradigmatic model of enhancer selectivity, whereby CTCF occupancy at an imprinting control region directs downstream enhancers to activate either H19 or Igf2. We used synthetic regulatory genomics to repeatedly replace the native locus with 157-kb payloads, and we systematically dissected its architecture.

Feb 28, 2024 | nature.com | Bo Xia |Weimin Zhang |Xinru Zhang |Ran Brosh |Aleksandra Wudzinska |Yu Zhao | +2 more

AbstractThe loss of the tail is among the most notable anatomical changes to have occurred along the evolutionary lineage leading to humans and to the ‘anthropomorphous apes’1,2,3, with a proposed role in contributing to human bipedalism4,5,6. Yet, the genetic mechanism that facilitated tail-loss evolution in hominoids remains unknown. Here we present evidence that an individual insertion of an Alu element in the genome of the hominoid ancestor may have contributed to tail-loss evolution.