title: Epigenetic stability increases extensively during Drosophila follicle stem cell differentiation.
abstract: Stem and embryonic cells facilitate programming toward multiple daughter cell fates, whereas differentiated cells resist reprogramming and oncogenic transformation. How alterations in the chromatin-based machinery of epigenetic inheritance contribute to these differences remains poorly known. We observed random, heritable changes in GAL4/UAS transgene programming during Drosophila ovarian follicle stem cell differentiation and used them to measure the stage-specific epigenetic stability of gene programming. The frequency of GAL4/UAS reprogramming declines more than 100-fold over the nine divisions comprising this stem cell lineage. Stabilization acts in cis, suggesting that it is chromatin-based, and correlates with increased S phase length. Our results suggest that stem/early progenitor cells cannot accurately transmit nongenetic information to their progeny; full epigenetic competence is acquired only gradually during early differentiation. Modulating epigenetic inheritance may be a critical process controlling transitions between the pleuripotent and differentiated states.
authors.affiliation: Department of Embryology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Laboratories, Carnegie Institution, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.
authors.forename: Andrew D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Skora
authors.forename: Allan C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Spradling
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001665:Binding Sites; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D019070:Cell Lineage; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D005260:Female; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D020868:Gene Silencing; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D008954:Models, Biological; D006080:Ovarian Follicle / Q000166:cytology*; D016196:S Phase; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D019076:Transgenes
chemical_list: D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins