From duplication to divergence: single-cell insights into transcriptional and cis-regulatory landscapes

Abstract

Gene duplication is a major source of evolutionary innovation, enabling the emergence of novel expression patterns and functions. Leveraging single-cell genomics, we investigated the transcriptional and cis-regulatory landscapes of duplicated genes in cultivated soybean (Glycine max), that has undergone two rounds of whole-genome duplication. Our analysis revealed extensive diversity of transcriptional profiles within and across tissues among duplicated gene pairs. Within-tissue divergence was largely attributable to genetic variation in their associated accessible chromatin regions (ACRs), where cis-regulatory elements reside, whereas cross-tissue divergence was more likely shaped by dynamics in ACR chromatin accessibility profiles across tissues. Distinct duplication mechanisms also likely give rise to different types of cis-regulatory variants, contributing variably to transcriptional divergence. By comparing ACRs associated with gene sets derived from the two rounds of whole-genome duplications and sharing a common ancestral gene, we found that most ACRs retained one or multiple corresponding duplicated sequences in which mutations gradually accumulated over time, while a subset likely arose de novo. Lastly, we traced the evolution of cell-type-specific expression and cell-type-specific ACRs within duplicated gene sets, illustrating a powerful framework for identifying candidate regulatory regions driving cell-type-specific expression. Collectively, our findings highlight the important role of cis- regulatory evolution in shaping transcriptional divergence in a spatiotemporal manner, uncovered with the resolution of single-cell genomics.