Different transcriptional strategies for zygotic genome activation in Drosophila [MNase-Seq]
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: During animal development, a fertilized egg is initially under the control of maternal products and only starts zygotic transcription after several cell divisions. In animals such as Xenopus, zebrafish and Drosophila, a massive increase in zygotic transcription occurs during the mid-blastula transition (MBT), when cells shift from rapid, synchronous cell divisions without gap phases to prolonged asynchronous divisions. Before MBT, only a few so-called pre-MBT genes are expressed. How transcription is set up during these early stages is poorly understood. For example, paused RNA Polymerase (Pol II) is frequently found at developmental control genes in mammalian embryonic stem cells and Drosophila embryos but when Pol II pausing is first established in the embryo is unknown. We have analyzed the genome-wide Pol II occupancy during the maternal-to-zygotic transition in hand-staged Drosophila embryos. The results show that massive Pol II recruitment and pausing is established during MBT. The ~100 genes that are transcribed before MBT are particularly short, consistent with a need for rapid transcription during these early cell divisions. Remarkably, most of these genes are transcribed without Pol II pausing and this correlates with a TATA-enriched promoter type. This suggests that distinct strategies are used for activation in the early Drosophila embryo and this may reflect general dynamic properties of promoters used throughout development. Mnase-seq in staged Drosophila embryos
Project description:During animal development, a fertilized egg is initially under the control of maternal products and only starts zygotic transcription after several cell divisions. In animals such as Xenopus, zebrafish and Drosophila, a massive increase in zygotic transcription occurs during the mid-blastula transition (MBT), when cells shift from rapid, synchronous cell divisions without gap phases to prolonged asynchronous divisions. Before MBT, only a few so-called pre-MBT genes are expressed. How transcription is set up during these early stages is poorly understood. For example, paused RNA Polymerase (Pol II) is frequently found at developmental control genes in mammalian embryonic stem cells and Drosophila embryos but when Pol II pausing is first established in the embryo is unknown. We have analyzed the genome-wide Pol II occupancy during the maternal-to-zygotic transition in hand-staged Drosophila embryos. The results show that massive Pol II recruitment and pausing is established during MBT. The ~100 genes that are transcribed before MBT are particularly short, consistent with a need for rapid transcription during these early cell divisions. Remarkably, most of these genes are transcribed without Pol II pausing and this correlates with a TATA-enriched promoter type. This suggests that distinct strategies are used for activation in the early Drosophila embryo and this may reflect general dynamic properties of promoters used throughout development. ChIP-seq for Pol II, TBP, H3K4me3, H3K27me3 and H3Ac in Drosophila embryos
Project description:During animal development, a fertilized egg is initially under the control of maternal products and only starts zygotic transcription after several cell divisions. In animals such as Xenopus, zebrafish and Drosophila, a massive increase in zygotic transcription occurs during the mid-blastula transition (MBT), when cells shift from rapid, synchronous cell divisions without gap phases to prolonged asynchronous divisions. Before MBT, only a few so-called pre-MBT genes are expressed. How transcription is set up during these early stages is poorly understood. For example, paused RNA Polymerase (Pol II) is frequently found at developmental control genes in mammalian embryonic stem cells and Drosophila embryos but when Pol II pausing is first established in the embryo is unknown. We have analyzed the genome-wide Pol II occupancy during the maternal-to-zygotic transition in hand-staged Drosophila embryos. The results show that massive Pol II recruitment and pausing is established during MBT. The ~100 genes that are transcribed before MBT are particularly short, consistent with a need for rapid transcription during these early cell divisions. Remarkably, most of these genes are transcribed without Pol II pausing and this correlates with a TATA-enriched promoter type. This suggests that distinct strategies are used for activation in the early Drosophila embryo and this may reflect general dynamic properties of promoters used throughout development.
Project description:During animal development, a fertilized egg is initially under the control of maternal products and only starts zygotic transcription after several cell divisions. In animals such as Xenopus, zebrafish and Drosophila, a massive increase in zygotic transcription occurs during the mid-blastula transition (MBT), when cells shift from rapid, synchronous cell divisions without gap phases to prolonged asynchronous divisions. Before MBT, only a few so-called pre-MBT genes are expressed. How transcription is set up during these early stages is poorly understood. For example, paused RNA Polymerase (Pol II) is frequently found at developmental control genes in mammalian embryonic stem cells and Drosophila embryos but when Pol II pausing is first established in the embryo is unknown. We have analyzed the genome-wide Pol II occupancy during the maternal-to-zygotic transition in hand-staged Drosophila embryos. The results show that massive Pol II recruitment and pausing is established during MBT. The ~100 genes that are transcribed before MBT are particularly short, consistent with a need for rapid transcription during these early cell divisions. Remarkably, most of these genes are transcribed without Pol II pausing and this correlates with a TATA-enriched promoter type. This suggests that distinct strategies are used for activation in the early Drosophila embryo and this may reflect general dynamic properties of promoters used throughout development.
Project description:These experiments measure genome-wide RNA Pol II binding in precisely staged wild-type embryos at five time points spanning the maternal to zygotic transition (nuclear cycles 12 through 14) of Drosophila melanogaster. In addition, RNA Pol II binding at nuclear cycle 13 is measured in embryos mutant for either mei-41/ATR or zelda. To correlate RNA Pol II binding with replication stress, genome-wide profiles of Replication protein A (70kDa subunit, RpA-70 EGFP) were generated in parallel with RNA Pol II for both wild-type and zelda at nuclear cycle 13.
Project description:These experiments measure genome-wide RNA Pol II binding in precisely staged wild-type embryos at five time points spanning the maternal to zygotic transition (nuclear cycles 12 through 14) of Drosophila melanogaster. In addition, RNA Pol II binding at nuclear cycle 13 is measured in embryos mutant for either mei-41/ATR or zelda. To correlate RNA Pol II binding with replication stress, genome-wide profiles of Replication protein A (70kDa subunit, RpA-70 EGFP) were generated in parallel with RNA Pol II for both wild-type and zelda at nuclear cycle 13. Two replicates each for 5 time points for wild type RNA Pol II. Two replicates for mei-41 RNA Pol II, nuclear cycle 13. Two replicates for zelda RNA Pol II, nuclear cycle 13. Two replicates each for Rpa70-EGFP in wild-type or zelda, nuclear cycle 13, matched to the corresponding RNA Pol II sample.
Project description:Early zebrafish embryo development proceeds first from a maternally transcribed and stored mRNAs, and zygotic gene activation (ZGA) is initiated at the mid-blastula transition (MBT; 1000-cell stage), 3.3 h post-fertilization. Very little is known on how the zygotic genome is programmed for transcriptional activation at the MBT. To start addressing this issue, we have mapped by ChIP-chip genome-wide promoter histone methylation (H3K4me3, H3K9me3, H3K27me3, H3K36me3) and RNA Pol II profiles before ZGA (256-cell stage; 2.5 hpf), during ZGA (MBT; 3.5 hpf)) and after ZGA (Post-MBT; 5.3 hpf) . We used a custom 2.1M probe HD promoter array (Nimblegen) for ChIP and input DNA hybridization. Peak detection was done using MA2C with P=10e-4 as cutoff. ChIP-chip experiments were performed from chromatin prepared by sonication after formaldehyde cross-linking, from embryos are the indicated developmental stages and ChIP DNA was hybridized onto the aforementioned Nimbegen promoter arrays.
Project description:In higher eukaryotes, maternally provided gene products drive the initial stages of embryogenesis until the zygotic transcriptional program takes over, a developmental process called the midblastula transition (MBT). In addition to zygotic genome activation, the MBT involves alterations in cell-cycle length and the implementation DNA damage/replication checkpoints that serve to monitor genome integrity. Previous work has shown that mutations affecting histone mRNA metabolism or DNA replication checkpoint factors severely impact developmental progression through the MBT, prompting us to characterize and contrast the transcriptomic impact of these genetic perturbations. In this study, we define gene expression profiles that mark early embryogenesis in Drosophila through transcriptomic analyses of developmentally staged (early syncytial vs late blastoderm) and biochemically fractionated (nuclear vs cytoplasmic) wild-type embryo. We then compare the transcriptomic profiles of loss-of-function mutants of the dChk1/Grapes replication checkpoint kinase and the Stem Loop Binding Protein (SLBP), a key regulator of replication-dependent histone mRNAs. Our analysis of RNA spatial and temporal distribution during embryogenesis offers new insights into the dynamics of early embryogenesis. Moreover, we find that grp and slbp mutant embryos display profound and highly similar defects in gene expression, most strikingly in zygotic genome activation, compromising the transition from a maternal to a zygotic regulation of development.
Project description:In this experiment we examined higher order chromatin structure during early Drosophila melanogaster development. We performed in situ Hi-C for hand-sorted non-mitotic embryos at nuclear cycle number 12, 13 and 14, and for embryos at 3-4 hours post fertilisation. During this time in development, the zygotic genome is activated and zygotic transcription is taking place for the first time. To assess the impact of transcription on chromatin structure we injected the transcription inhibitors alpha-amanitin or triptolide before zygotic genome activation and performed Hi-C and ChIP-seq for RNA Pol II. Furthermore, we used Hi-C to study genome architecture in embryos lacking the transcription factor Zelda.
Project description:Early zebrafish embryo development proceeds first from a maternally transcribed and stored mRNAs, and zygotic gene activation (ZGA) is initiated at the mid-blastula transition (MBT; 1000-cell stage), 3.3 h post-fertilization. Very little is known on how the zygotic genome is programmed for transcriptional activation at the MBT. To start addressing this issue, we have mapped by ChIP-chip genome-wide promoter histone methylation (H3K4me3, H3K9me3, H3K27me3, H3K36me3) and RNA Pol II profiles before ZGA (256-cell stage; 2.5 hpf), during ZGA (MBT; 3.5 hpf)) and after ZGA (Post-MBT; 5.3 hpf) . We used a custom 2.1M probe HD promoter array (Nimblegen) for ChIP and input DNA hybridization. Peak detection was done using MA2C with P=10e-4 as cutoff.
Project description:The role of Polycomb group (PcG) was studied on RNA Polymerase II (Pol II) pausing phenomenon. Wild type and Polycomb mutant (esc) embryos were used for ChIP-Seq experiments using Pol II and histone methylation antibodies. Enhanced Pol II occupancy was observed for thousands of genes in esc mutant embryos, including genes not known to be bound by PRC2 or having H3K27me3 associated. Most of these genes exhibit a concomitant reduction in H3K27me3 and increase in H3K4me3 at promoter-proximal regions. Silent genes lacking promoter-associated paused Pol II in wild-type embryos are converted into âpoisedâ genes with paused Pol II in esc mutants. We suggest that this conversion of silent genes into poised genes might render differentiated cell types susceptible to switches in identity in PcG mutants. ChIP-Seq data was generated for antibodies against Pol-II, H3K4me3, H3K27me3 in both wild type and esc mutant Drosophila embryos (0-2hr, 8-12hr, and 18-24hr embryos). In addition GRO-Seq data was generated for 18-24hr esc mutant embryos.