Inference and Evolutionary Analysis of Genome-Scale Regulatory Networks in Large Phylogenies

Changes in transcriptional regulatory networks can significantly contribute to species evolution and adaptation. However, identification of genome-scale regulatory networks is an open challenge, especially in non-model organisms.

 gene duplication promotes network divergence across evolution.

Transcriptional regulatory networks are key components of cellular information processing and transmit upstream signals to affect downstream context-specific expression patterns. Such networks are defined by connections of regulators such as transcription factors and signaling proteins to target genes (Kim et al., 2009). Changes in transcriptional regulatory networks have been repeatedly shown to contribute to phenotypic diversity of organisms