UCSF

The duplication of transcription regulators can elicit major regulatory network rearrangements over evolutionary timescales. However, few examples of duplications resulting in gene network expansions are understood in molecular detail. Here we show that four Candida albicans transcription regulators that arose by successive duplications have differentiated from one another by acquiring different intrinsic DNA-binding specificities, different preferences for half-site spacing, and different associations with cofactors. The combination of these three mechanisms resulted in each of the four regulators controlling a distinct set of target genes, which likely contributed to the adaption of this fungus to its human host. Our results illustrate how successive duplications and diversification of an ancestral transcription regulator can underlie major changes in an organism's regulatory circuitry.