Regulation of a duplicated locus: Drosophila sloppy paired is replete with functionally overlapping enhancers

In order to investigate regulation and redundancy within the sloppy paired (slp) locus, we analyzed 30 kilobases of DNA encompassing the tandem, coordinately regulated slp1 and slp2 transcription units. We found a remarkable array of stripe enhancers with overlapping activities surrounding the slp1 transcription unit, and, unexpectedly, glial cell enhancers surrounding slp2. The slp stripe regulatory region generates 7 stripes at blastoderm, and later 14 stripes that persist throughout embryogenesis. Phylogenetic analysis among drosophilids suggests that the multiplicity of stripe enhancers did not evolve through recent duplication. Most of the direct integration among cis-regulatory modules appears to be simply additive, with one notable exception. Despite the apparent redundancy among stripe enhancers, transgenic rescue suggests that most are required for full function, to maintain wingless expression and parasegment boundaries throughout embryogenesis. Transgenic rescue also reveals indirect positive autoregulation by the 7 early stripes, without which alternate stripes within the 14-stripe pattern are lost, leading to embryos with a pair-rule phenotype.

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► slp1 and slp2 are coordinately regulated by 8 stripe enhancers surrounding slp1.
► Evolution of these enhancers within drosophilids did not involve duplication.
► In contrast, an array of glial cell enhancers surround the slp2 transcription unit.
► The 7 early stripes are required for expression of half of the late 14 stripes.
► Mutant rescue shows most of the apparent redundancy to be essential.