Dataset Information

Transcriptional control of morphological properties of direction-selective T4/T5 neurons in Drosophila.

ABSTRACT: In the Drosophila visual system, T4/T5 neurons represent the first stage of computation of the direction of visual motion. T4 and T5 neurons exist in four subtypes, each responding to motion in one of the four cardinal directions and projecting axons into one of the four lobula plate layers. However, all T4/T5 neurons share properties essential for sensing motion. How T4/T5 neurons acquire their properties during development is poorly understood. We reveal that the transcription factors SoxN and Sox102F control the acquisition of properties common to all T4/T5 neuron subtypes, i.e. the layer specificity of dendrites and axons. Accordingly, adult flies are motion blind after disruption of SoxN or Sox102F in maturing T4/T5 neurons. We further find that the transcription factors Ato and Dac are redundantly required in T4/T5 neuron progenitors for SoxN and Sox102F expression in T4/T5 neurons, linking the transcriptional programmes specifying progenitor identity to those regulating the acquisition of morphological properties in neurons. Our work will help to link structure, function and development in a neuronal type performing a computation that is conserved across vertebrate and invertebrate visual systems.

SUBMITTER: Schilling T

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6361130 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Transcriptional control of morphological properties of direction-selective T4/T5 neurons in <i>Drosophila</i>.

Schilling Tabea T Ali Aicha H AH Leonhardt Aljoscha A Borst Alexander A Pujol-Martí Jesús J

Development (Cambridge, England) 20190129 2

In the <i>Drosophila</i> visual system, T4/T5 neurons represent the first stage of computation of the direction of visual motion. T4 and T5 neurons exist in four subtypes, each responding to motion in one of the four cardinal directions and projecting axons into one of the four lobula plate layers. However, all T4/T5 neurons share properties essential for sensing motion. How T4/T5 neurons acquire their properties during development is poorly understood. We reveal that the transcription factors S ...[more]

PMID: 30642835

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Project description:Control of transcription is crucial for correct gene expression and orderly development. For many years, bacteriophage T4 has provided a simple model system to investigate mechanisms that regulate this process. Development of T4 requires the transcription of early, middle and late RNAs. Because T4 does not encode its own RNA polymerase, it must redirect the polymerase of its host, E. coli, to the correct class of genes at the correct time. T4 accomplishes this through the action of phage-encoded factors. Here I review recent studies investigating the transcription of T4 prereplicative genes, which are expressed as early and middle transcripts. Early RNAs are generated immediately after infection from T4 promoters that contain excellent recognition sequences for host polymerase. Consequently, the early promoters compete extremely well with host promoters for the available polymerase. T4 early promoter activity is further enhanced by the action of the T4 Alt protein, a component of the phage head that is injected into E. coli along with the phage DNA. Alt modifies Arg265 on one of the two α subunits of RNA polymerase. Although work with host promoters predicts that this modification should decrease promoter activity, transcription from some T4 early promoters increases when RNA polymerase is modified by Alt. Transcription of T4 middle genes begins about 1 minute after infection and proceeds by two pathways: 1) extension of early transcripts into downstream middle genes and 2) activation of T4 middle promoters through a process called sigma appropriation. In this activation, the T4 co-activator AsiA binds to Region 4 of σ⁷⁰, the specificity subunit of RNA polymerase. This binding dramatically remodels this portion of σ⁷⁰, which then allows the T4 activator MotA to also interact with σ⁷⁰. In addition, AsiA restructuring of σ⁷⁰ prevents Region 4 from forming its normal contacts with the -35 region of promoter DNA, which in turn allows MotA to interact with its DNA binding site, a MotA box, centered at the -30 region of middle promoter DNA. T4 sigma appropriation reveals how a specific domain within RNA polymerase can be remolded and then exploited to alter promoter specificity.

Dataset Information

Transcriptional control of morphological properties of direction-selective T4/T5 neurons in Drosophila.

Publications

Transcriptional control of morphological properties of direction-selective T4/T5 neurons in <i>Drosophila</i>.

Similar Datasets

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