TF-High-Evolutionary: In Vivo Mutagenesis of Gene Regulatory Networks for the Study of the Genetics and Evolution of the <i>Drosophila</i> Regulatory Genome

Understanding the evolutionary potential of mutations in gene regulatory networks is essential to furthering the study of evolution and development. However, in multicellular systems, genetic manipulation of regulatory networks in a targeted and high-throughput way remains challenging. In this study, we designed TF-High-Evolutionary (HighEvo), a transcription factor (TF) fused with a base editor (activation-induced deaminase), to continuously induce germline mutations at TF-binding sites across regulatory networks in Drosophila. Populations of flies expressing TF-HighEvo in their germlines accumulated mutations at rates an order of magnitude higher than natural populations. Importantly, these mutations accumulated around the targeted TF-binding sites across the genome, leading to distinct morphological phenotypes consistent with the developmental roles of the tagged TFs. As such, this TF-HighEvo method allows the interrogation of the mutational space of gene regulatory networks at scale and can serve as a powerful reagent for experimental evolution and genetic screens focused on the regulatory genome.