543B Poster - 07. Chromatin, epigenetics and genomics
Friday April 08, 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Authors:
Madeline Gruys ^{1, 2}; Zainab Abdulrahman ^{1, 2}; Ashlyn Anderson ^{1, 2}; Safiyo Aden ^{1, 2}; Solomon Aviles ^{1, 2}; Derrick Carper ^{1, 2}; Nathan Dupre ^{1, 2}; Jack Jurmu ^{1, 2}; Tetiana Khotko ^{1, 2}; Zahraa Lami ^{1, 2}; Hunter Lindsay ^{1, 2}; Tea Merkl ^{1, 2}; Heidi J. J. Pipkin ^{1, 2}; Dennis Quach ^{1, 2}; Anthony Ruiz ^{1, 2}; Melissa K. Sawyer ^{1, 2}; Noah Stone ^{1, 2}; Bailey Taylor ^{1, 2}; Barbara Whitlock ^{1, 2}; Christina Yang ^{1, 2}; Emily Yang ^{1, 2}; Andrew M Arsham ¹

Affiliations:
1) Bemidji State University; 2) North Hennepin Community College

Keywords:
e. heterochromatin; m. computational models

Ancient essential genes are highly conserved due to strict functional constraints that limit their evolutionary potential. It has become clear that young and rapidly evolving genes can also acquire new functions and become essential. The evolution of some of these genes may be driven by the dynamic nature of heterochromatin and to maintain silencing of rapidly-changing non-coding heterochromatic sequences. The evolutionarily dynamic ZAD-ZNF gene family encodes the most abundant class of insect transcription factors, many of which appear to be the product of relatively recent segmental duplication or retrotransposition. CG17359 and CG17361 are adjacent paralogous ZAD-ZNF genes that appear to have formed by retrotransposition between 30 and 40 million years ago. CG17359 is essential in D. melanogaster and shows evidence of positive selection, while CG17361 is not essential and does not show evidence of strong selective pressure. We have identified a third nearby ZAD-ZNF gene, CG8474/Meics, as a candidate ancestor for both. Using the gene annotation framework of the Genomics Education Partnership, we annotated sequence conservation and synteny for all 3 genes across Drosophila species spanning 40 million years of evolution. The quickly-evolving yet essential members of the ZAD-ZNF gene family suggest candidate heterochromatin regulatory genes for functional testing.