Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39737967›Full record

ArticleNature communications2024

The highly rugged yet navigable regulatory landscape of the bacterial transcription factor TetR.

Cauã Antunes Westmann, Leander Goldbach, Andreas Wagner

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature communications, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
12citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

12 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Review
  2. Emergence Biases in Molecular Evolution.Genome biology and evolution · 2026
    Review
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  5. Review
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  9. Frontiers in veterinary science · 2026
    Article
  10. Inference and visualization of complex genotype-phenotype maps withbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025
    Article
  11. Article
  12. Engineering a Novel Probiotic Toolkit inACS synthetic biology · 2024
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Cauã Antunes WestmannDepartment of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, Zurich, CH-8057, Switzerland.ORCID 0000-0003-1572-2279
Leander GoldbachDepartment of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, Zurich, CH-8057, Switzerland.
Andreas WagnerDepartment of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, Zurich, CH-8057, Switzerland. andreas.wagner@ieu.uzh.ch.ORCID 0000-0003-4299-3840

Funding

Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung (Swiss National Science Foundation) 310030_208174
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Transcription factor binding sites (TFBSs) are important sources of evolutionary innovations. Understanding how evolution navigates the sequence space of such sites can be achieved by mapping TFBS adaptive landscapes. In such a landscape, an individual location corresponds to a TFBS bound by a transcription factor. The elevation at that location corresponds to the strength of transcriptional regulation conveyed by the sequence. Here, we develop an in vivo massively parallel reporter assay to map the landscape of bacterial TFBSs. We apply this assay to the TetR repressor, for which few TFBSs are known. We quantify the strength of transcriptional repression for 17,765 TFBSs and show that the resulting landscape is highly rugged, with 2092 peaks. Only a few peaks convey stronger repression than the wild type. Non-additive (epistatic) interactions between mutations are frequent. Despite these hallmarks of ruggedness, most high peaks are evolutionarily accessible. They have large basins of attraction and are reached by around 20% of populations evolving on the landscape. Which high peak is reached during evolution is unpredictable and contingent on the mutational path taken. This in-depth analysis of a prokaryotic gene regulator reveals a landscape that is navigable but much more rugged than the landscapes of eukaryotic regulators.

Indexed as

Escherichia coliGene Expression Regulation, BacterialRepressor ProteinsTranscription FactorsBacterial ProteinsBinding SitesEscherichia coli ProteinsEvolution, MolecularMutationProtein BindingBacterial ProteinsEscherichia coli ProteinsRepressor ProteinsTranscription Factors

Identifiers

PMID39737967
PMCPMC11686294

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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.