Zeste can facilitate long-range enhancer-promoter communication and insulator bypass in Drosophila melanogaster.
The looping model of enhancer-promoter interactions predicts that these specific long-range interactions are supported by a certain class of proteins. In particular, the Drosophila transcription factor Zeste was hypothesized to facilitate long-distance associations between enhancers and promoters. We have re-examined the role of Zeste in supporting long-range interactions between an enhancer and a promoter using the white gene as a model system. The results show that Zeste binds to the upstream white promoter region and the enhancer that is responsible for white activation in the eyes. We have confirmed the previous finding that Zeste is not required for the activity of the eye enhancer and the promoter when they are located in close proximity to each other. However, inactivation of Zeste markedly affects the enhancer-promoter communication in transgenes when the eye enhancer and the white promoter are separated by a 3-kb spacer or the yellow gene. Zeste is also required for insulator bypass by the eye enhancer. Taken together, these results show that Zeste can support specific long-range interactions between enhancers and promoters.
Kostyuchenko
Margarita
M
Department of the Control of Genetic Processes, Institute of Gene Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119334, Russia.
Savitskaya
Ekaterina
E
Koryagina
Elizaveta
E
Melnikova
Larisa
L
Karakozova
Marina
M
Georgiev
Pavel
P
D000818:Animals; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000502:physiology*; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000502:physiology*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster; D004742:Enhancer Elements, Genetic / Q000502:physiology*; D038101:Insulator Elements; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic / Q000502:physiology*; D019076:Transgenes / Q000502:physiology
D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; C060849:z protein, Drosophila