from Ernesto Perez-Rueda, Nancy Rivera-Gomez, Mario Alberto Martinez-Nuñez and Silvia Tenorio-Salgado writing in Bacterial Regulatory Networks:
The capabilities of organisms to contend with environmental changes depend on their repertoire of genes and their ability to regulate their expression. DNA-binding transcription factors have a fundamental role in this process, because they regulate transcription positively or negatively as a consequence of environmental signals. In this chapter we briefly describe some of the most recent findings on regulatory network evolution from the perspective of DNA-binding transcription factors. We explore diverse elements associated with the evolution of regulatory networks, such as gene duplication, where new interactions can emerge together with their upstream and downstream binding sites. The chapter is divided into sections covering the evolution of transcription factors and their domains, their evolution, and a global analysis. Hypotheses concerning a comprehensive picture of how regulatory networks have evolved in prokaryotes and the role of transcription factors in this organization are discussed.
Further reading: Bacterial Regulatory Networks Related publications