title: Dynamic regulation of eve stripe 2 expression reveals transcriptional bursts in living Drosophila embryos.
abstract: We present the use of recently developed live imaging methods to examine the dynamic regulation of even-skipped (eve) stripe 2 expression in the precellular Drosophila embryo. Nascent transcripts were visualized via MS2 RNA stem loops. The eve stripe 2 transgene exhibits a highly dynamic pattern of de novo transcription, beginning with a broad domain of expression during nuclear cycle 12 (nc12), and progressive refinement during nc13 and nc14. The mature stripe 2 pattern is surprisingly transient, constituting just ∼15 min of the ∼90-min period of expression. Nonetheless, this dynamic transcription profile faithfully predicts the limits of the mature stripe visualized by conventional in situ detection methods. Analysis of individual transcription foci reveals intermittent bursts of de novo transcription, with duration cycles of 4-10 min. We discuss a multistate model of transcription regulation and speculate on its role in the dynamic repression of the eve stripe 2 expression pattern during development.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720; and.
authors.forename: Jacques P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Bothma
authors.affiliation: Joseph Henry Laboratories of Physics and.
authors.forename: Hernan G
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Garcia
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720; and.
authors.forename: Emilia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Esposito
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720; and.
authors.forename: Gavin
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schlissel
authors.affiliation: Joseph Henry Laboratories of Physics andLewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544 mlevine@berkeley.edu tg2@princeton.edu.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gregor
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720; and mlevine@berkeley.edu tg2@princeton.edu.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Levine
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000378:metabolism; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000196:embryology* / Q000235:genetics*; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D014157:Transcription Factors; C052837:eve protein, Drosophila