Project description:This project’s aim was to compare the transcriptional profiles of olfactory sensory neurons in Drosophila melanogaster in order to identify novel genes that specify neuron-specific functions/phenotypes or may otherwise be involved in the development of the olfactory system. The isolation of sufficient numbers of intact olfactory sensory neurons (OSN) from the antenna of Drosophila melanogaster has so far limited single-cell transcriptomic approaches being applied to the adult fly antenna. Targeted DamID (TaDa) provides an alternative approach for profiling transcriptional activity in a cell-specific manor that bypasses the need for isolating OSN. Using the Gal4/UAS system, we applied TaDa to seven OSN populations and compared differences in Pol II occupancy for genes across these datasets.
Project description:Eukaryotic genome is compartmentalized into structural and functional domains. One of the concepts of higher order organization of chromatin posits that the DNA is organized in constrained loops that behave as independent functional domains. A predominantly ribo-proteinaceous nucleoskeleton, termed as Nuclear Matrix (NuMat) is proposed to provide the structural platform for attachment of these loops. The DNA sequence located at the base of the loops are known as the Matrix Attachment Regions (MARs). NuMat relates to all nuclear processes and has been shown to be cell type specific in composition. It is a biochemically defined structure and several protocols have been used to isolate the NuMat where some of the steps have been critically evaluated. In the present study we have looked into the dynamics of MARs when the isolation process is varied and also during embryonic development of D. melanogaster. Our results show that a subset of MARs termed here as “Core-MARs” are fixed and unalterable anchor points in the Drosophila genome as they remain associated with NuMat at all developmental stages and do not depend on the isolation procedure used. Core-MARs are abundant in the pericentromeric heterochromatin. On the other hand, MARs in the euchromatin are dynamic and reflect the transcriptomic profile of the developmental stage of the host cell. New MARs are generated by nuclear stabilization (a critical step in the isolation procedure), and during development, mostly at the paused RNA polymerase II (Pol II) promoters. Paused Pol II MARs depend on RNA transcription for NuMat association. RNase A treatment leads to collapse of the NuMat and loss of paused Pol II promoter MARs. Our data reveals the role of MARs in functional compartmentalization of D. melanogaster genome and adds to the current understanding of nuclear architecture and 3D organization of a functionally dynamic nucleus.
Project description:Targeted DamID (TaDa) measures gene expression using a DNA adenine methyltransferase (Dam) fused to RNA polymerase II (Dam Pol II) to methylate DNA as the genome is transcribed (Southall, Gold et al. 2013, PMID: 23792147). Here we use traditional Illumina RNA-Seq to determine if a cell’s expression profile is affected by Dam Pol II expression. Twenty-four hours prior to collection, we ubiquitously drove UAS Dam or UAS Dam Pol II using a tubulin (tub) GAL4 regulated by a temperature sensitive tub GAL80[ts] (McGuire et al. 2003, PMID: 14657498) in adult Drosophila melanogaster (taxon: 7227) whole males, whole females, testes, and ovaries.
Project description:ChIP-seq study analysing adult Drosophila melanogaster head, glial, neuronal and fat body, as well as embryonic RNA pol II and H2A.v binding by employing the GAL4-UAS system to generate GFP-fusion proteins and ChIP-seq
Project description:Control of RNA transcription is critical for the development and homeostasis of all organisms, and can occur at multiple steps of the transcription cycle, including RNA polymerase II (Pol II) recruitment, initiation, promoter-proximal pausing, and elongation. That Pol II accumulates on many promoters in metazoans implies that steps other than Pol II recruitment are rate-limiting and regulated 1-6. By integrating genome-wide Pol II chromatin immunoprecipition (ChIP) and Global Run-On (GRO) genomic data sets from Drosophila cells, we examined critical features of Pol II near promoters. The accumulation of promoter-proximal polymerase is widespread, occurring on 70% of active genes; and unlike elongating Pol II within the body of genes, promoter Pol II are held paused by factors like NELF, unable to transcribe unless nuclei are treated with strong detergent. Notably, we find that the vast majority of promoter-proximal Pol II detected by ChIP are paused, thereby identifying the biochemical nature of this rate-limiting step in transcription. Finally, we demonstrate that Drosophila promoters do not have the upstream divergent Pol II that is seen so broadly and prominently on mammalian promoters. We postulate this is a consequence of Drosophila’s extensive use of directional core promoter sequence elements, which contrasts with mammals’ lack of directional elements and prevalence of CpG island core promoters. In support of this idea, we show that the fraction of mammalian promoters containing a TATA box core element is dramatically depleted of upstream divergent transcription.
Project description:Cell-type specific transcriptional profiling is key to understanding cell fate specification and function. In order to achieve this it has been necessary, to date, to isolate specific cell types from complex tissues. We have developed 'TaDa', a technique that enables cell-specific profiling without cell isolation. TaDa permits genome-wide profiling of DNA- or chromatin-binding proteins without cell sorting, fixation or affinity purification. The method is simple, sensitive, highly reproducible and is in principle transferable to any model system. Here we show that TaDa can be used to identify transcribed genes in a cell-type specific manner. We profile the genome-wide binding of RNA polymerase II (Pol II) in adjacent, clonally related neural stem cells in intact Drosophila brains. Our data reveal the activity of non-canonical metabolic pathways in proliferating neuroepithelial cells, and highlight a possible role for the retinal determination gene regulatory network in patterning neural stem cell fates. We also identify temporal differences in the activity of signalling pathways that control neuroepithelial cell fate by profiling Pol II occupancy at two different stages of brain development. Using RNA Pol II TaDa to profile, in a cell-type specific manner, the transcriptional state of neuroepithelial cells at two stages of larval brain development. Closely related asymmetrically dividing neural stem cells (neuroblasts) were also profiled, in order to compare the transcriptomes of two different types of neural stem cells. 3 biological relicates were performed for 3rd instar neuroepithelial cells (with one dye-swap). 2 biological relicates were performed for 3rd instar neuroblasts (with dye-swap). 2 biological relicates were performed for 1st instar neuroepithelial cells (with dye-swap). As additional supporting evidence for the Pol II TaDa technique, 2 biological relicates were performed for 3rd instar salivary glands (with dye-swap) in order to compare with previous Pol II-ChIP data for this tissue [PMID 22821985].