In the early stages of fruit fly development, genes are individualism, not collectivism

A new study published in the journal Current Biology by researchers from New York University and Princeton University shows that during the early development of fruit flies, active genes do not form clusters and share resources
.

Christine Rushlow, professor of biology at New York University and senior author of the study, said: "This study changes our view of the role of molecular mechanisms in basic cellular mechanisms during biological development
.

"

The nucleus is the part of the cell that contains most of the genetic information, including the complex and messy long DNA strands that make up the genome.
The purpose is to determine the behavior of the organism
.

The gene stored in the DNA sequence not only encodes the protein sequence required to express the traits associated with the gene, but also encodes information about when the protein sequence was made

"The nucleus is a well-designed exchange-the connection point for a large amount of information about the state of the cell's environment.
This information will be processed and responded to by a set of clearly expressed protein products
.

Under this framework, our research asked these hundreds of Whether there is a cooperative relationship between logic gates, they each decide when to make their own proteins," said Peter Whitney, a PhD student in the Department of Biology at New York University and one of the authors of the study

In the environment of the cell nucleus, genes regulated by the same type of information will be closely clustered together so that they can share resources and potentially reduce the energy cost of regulation, which makes sense
.

Several previous experiments have shown that there is a certain degree of organization in the nucleus of discrete regions occupied by genes

In the study of "Contemporary Biology," researchers demonstrated that they can use microscope imaging procedures and Drosophila (a model organism commonly used in genetics and molecular research) to accurately identify the physical location of active genes
.

The researchers examined how the fertilized egg develops into a complete organism.

The researchers focused their attention on the earliest set of genes that appeared in Drosophila embryos 90 minutes ago and observed how a protein called Zelda regulates gene transcription by recruiting RNA polymerase II (Pol-II)
.

Using high-resolution microscopy and antibody staining, they saw Pol-II at the primary transcription site on the chromosome

By using this method to observe the locations of many genes, they asked a question: Are genes found in clusters? The answer is no
.

Rushlow said: "We hypothesize that when they are close, the genes in the regulatory center may share the Pol-II pool
.

" "However, our data shows that this is not the case.

The researchers conducted a series of follow-up experiments to test the concept of functional clustering, such as looking for changes in gene expression when genes are found at close range, or signs of sharing resources between visualized genes
.

Once again, they found no evidence of gathering

Contrary to the idea that genes gather and share transcriptional resources in space (people might call it a "collectivist" model), the authors concluded that these data support an "individualist" model of gene control during early genome activation in Drosophila

DOI

10.
1016/j.
cub.
2021.
09.
027

Article title

Spatial organization of transcribing loci during early genome activation in Drosophila