ArticleNature communications2018
Random sequences rapidly evolve into de novo promoters.
Article in Nature communications, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 86 papers.
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Who cites it
86 citing papers in PubMed, 186 citations in OpenAlex.
- A multi-objective sequence engineering framework for rational genetic vaccine design.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2026Article
- Synthetic Approaches as Empirical Tools for Testing Evolutionary Theory.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Review
- A Single-Nucleotide Substitution Generates a de Novo Promoter That Activates a Latent Metabolic Bypass in Escherichia coli.Molecular microbiology · 2026Article
- Emergence Biases in Molecular Evolution.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Review
- The adaptive landscapes of three globaleLife · 2026Article
- Core elements play distinct roles in promoter birth and transcriptional regulation.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Emergence and evolution of protein-coding de novo genes.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2026Review
- Probing the limits of genetic recoding using multi-omics-guided evolution.Nature communications · 2026Article
- De novo promoters emerge more readily from random DNA than from genomic DNA.Science advances · 2026Article
- Rhodo-Box: A Synthetic Biology Toolbox to Facilitate Metabolic Engineering ofACS synthetic biology · 2026Article
- Discovering, Integrating, and Reinterpreting the Molecular Logic of Life: From Classical Theories of Heredity to an Extended Functional Perspective on the Central Dogma.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Macrolide resistance trajectories across threeFrontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Design of CRISPRi-Based Synthetic Gene Circuits in Bacteria.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2026Article
- Emergence of antiphage functions from random sequence libraries reveals mechanisms of gene birth.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- De novo promoter design method based on deep generative and dynamic evolution algorithm.Nucleic acids research · 2025Article
- Gene regulatory networks and essential transcription factors for de novo-originated genes.Nature ecology & evolution · 2025Article
- The latent cis-regulatory potential of mobile DNA in Escherichia coli.Nature communications · 2025Article
- The Environment-Dependent Regulatory Landscape of thebioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
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26 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
How new functions arise de novo is a fundamental question in evolution. We studied de novo evolution of promoters in Escherichia coli by replacing the lac promoter with various random sequences of the same size (~100 bp) and evolving the cells in the presence of lactose. We find that ~60% of random sequences can evolve expression comparable to the wild-type with only one mutation, and that ~10% of random sequences can serve as active promoters even without evolution. Such a short mutational distance between random sequences and active promoters may improve the evolvability, yet may also lead to accidental promoters inside genes that interfere with normal expression. Indeed, our bioinformatic analyses indicate that E. coli was under selection to reduce accidental promoters inside genes by avoiding promoter-like sequences. We suggest that a low threshold for functionality balanced by selection against undesired targets can increase the evolvability by making new beneficial features more accessible.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.