Evolutionary changes in cis regulation are associated with altered chromatin activity and gene expression levels in the Drosophila eye development (RNA-Seq)

Expression profiling by high-throughput sequencing (RNA-seq) across eight WT Drosophila species - D. melanogaster, D. simulans, D. yakuba, D. ananassae, D. pseudoobscura, D. willistoni, D. mojavensis and D. virilis - and three tissues, namely, brain, eye-antennal and imaginal discs, at the stage of third instar larvae. By the use of Ornstein-Uhlenbeck methods, we assess the evolutionary forces acting on regulatory elements (cis-level), chromatin activity and gene expression across Drosophila eye-antennal imaginal discs at the stage of third instar larvae.