Project description:To test whether nuclear importin alpha2 can regulate transcription, we sought to examine gene expression changes in cells with nuclear accumulation of importin alpha2 by performing microarray analysis. We designed an experiment in which EGFP-fused full-length importin alpha2 was transfected into HeLa cells. To exclude the possibility that exogenous, full-length importin alpha2 protein enhances nuclear transport of karyophilic proteins such as transcription factors and thereby directly influences gene expression, a mutant of importin alpha2 which is mutated in the C-terminal CAS-binding domain was also transfected, so that it is never recycled to the cytoplasm and shows complete nuclear localization. We undertook to investigate whether there were changes in gene expression common to cells expressing the full-length importin alpha2 and the C-terminal mutant (C-mutant) isoform. EGFP vs. EGFP-importin alpha2 full length, or EGFP vs EGFP-importin alpha2 CAS-binding mutant. One replicate each. EGFP-expressing cells are used as a control.
Project description:To test whether nuclear importin alpha2 can regulate transcription, we sought to examine gene expression changes in cells with nuclear accumulation of importin alpha2 by performing microarray analysis. We designed an experiment in which EGFP-fused full-length importin alpha2 was transfected into HeLa cells. To exclude the possibility that exogenous, full-length importin alpha2 protein enhances nuclear transport of karyophilic proteins such as transcription factors and thereby directly influences gene expression, a mutant of importin alpha2 which is mutated in the C-terminal CAS-binding domain was also transfected, so that it is never recycled to the cytoplasm and shows complete nuclear localization. We undertook to investigate whether there were changes in gene expression common to cells expressing the full-length importin alpha2 and the C-terminal mutant (C-mutant) isoform.
Project description:To screen transcripts enriched in pole cells, primordial germ cells of Drosophila, during early embryogenesis, we compared transcriptome between pole cells and whole embryos at stage 4 by a microarray analysis. We used fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) to isolate pole cells from the embryos carrying the transgene, EGFP-vasa, which expresses GFP specifically and continuously in the germline throughout the life cycle. Keywords: cell type comparison
Project description:To understand transcriptomic dynamics of PGC (primordial germ cells; pole cell) of fruit fly, we used fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) to isolate PGC from the embryos carrying the transgene, EGFP-vasa, which expresses GFP specifically and continuously in the germline throughout the life cycle. The PGCs collected at 11 time points during the embryogenesis were subjected to microarray analyses.
Project description:Histones are essential for chromatin packaging and histone supply must be tightly regulated as excess histones are toxic. To drive the rapid cell cycles of the early embryo, however, excess histones are maternally deposited. Therefore, soluble histones must be buffered by histone chaperones but the chaperone necessary to stabilize soluble H3-H4 pools in the Drosophila embryo has yet to be identified. Here, we show that CG8223, the Drosophila ortholog of NASP, is a H3-H4-specific chaperone in the early embryo. NASP specifically binds to H3-H4 in the early embryo. We demonstrate that, while NASP is non-essential in Drosophila, NASP is maternal effect lethal gene. Embryos laid by NASP mutant mothers have a reduce rate of hatching and show defects in early embryogenesis. Critically, soluble H3-H4 pools are degraded in embryos laid by NASP mutant mothers. Our work identifies NASP as the critical H3-H4 histone chaperone in the Drosophila embryo.
Project description:Micro-C was carried out for control embryos and embryos produced from gd7 mutant mothers. The embryos from mutant mothers produce only a single type along the dorsal-ventral axis (dorsal ectoderm). We used these embryos to compare chromatin conformation across tissues.