Chromatin regulators as capacitors of inter-species expression variations

We analyzed the genome-wide expression profiles of mutant strains of two yeast species in which eight different chromatin regulators and one transcription factor were deleted (one gene deleted in each strain). Comparison of the inter-species expression differences between the wild-types of these species and their mutants showed that deletion of regulators tends to increase the amount of inter-species expression differences, suggestng that the regilators are normally buffering hidden variability. In addition, we measured allele-specific expresion levels of the interspecific hybrid formed by mating each of the two corresponding mutants (deleted for the same regulator). Keywords: Comparative transcriptome analysis Nine gene deletions were examined. For each gene deletion, there are four datasets - S.cerevisiae and S. paradoxus or the hybrid each with two biological repeats. These four datasets are contained within a single slide of our custom two-species microarray, as it includes two subarrays (blocks) and hybridization was performed with two dyes.