title: Study of long-distance functional interactions between Su(Hw) insulators that can regulate enhancer-promoter communication in Drosophila melanogaster.
abstract: The Su(Hw) insulator found in the gypsy retrotransposon is the most potent enhancer blocker in Drosophila melanogaster. However, two such insulators in tandem do not prevent enhancer-promoter communication, apparently because of their pairing interaction that results in mutual neutralization. Furthering our studies of the role of insulators in the control of gene expression, here we present a functional analysis of a large set of transgenic constructs with various arrangements of regulatory elements, including two or three insulators. We demonstrate that their interplay can have quite different outcomes depending on the order of and distance between elements. Thus, insulators can interact with each other over considerable distances, across interposed enhancers or promoters and coding sequences, whereby enhancer blocking may be attenuated, cancelled, or restored. Some inferences concerning the possible modes of insulator action are made from collating the new data and the relevant literature, with tentative schemes illustrating the regulatory situations in particular model constructs.
authors.affiliation: Department of the Control of Genetic Processes, Institute of Gene Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119334, Russia.
authors.forename: Ekaterina
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Savitskaya
authors.forename: Larisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Melnikova
authors.forename: Margarita
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kostuchenko
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kravchenko
authors.forename: Ekaterina
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pomerantseva
authors.forename: Tatiana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Boikova
authors.forename: Darya
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chetverina
authors.forename: Aleksander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Parshikov
authors.forename: Polyna
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zobacheva
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gracheva
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Galkin
authors.forename: Pavel
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Georgiev
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics*; D004742:Enhancer Elements, Genetic / Q000502:physiology*; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D038101:Insulator Elements / Q000502:physiology*; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic / Q000502:physiology*; D018626:Retroelements / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D018626:Retroelements