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Identifier

000443844

Title

Investigation of spatiotemporal expression of proneural bound enhancers in embryo, larva and adult Drosophila melanogaster

Alternative Title

Χωροχρονική μελέτη έκφρασης ενισχυτών προσδενόμενων σε προνευρικά γονίδια σε έμβρυα, λάρβα και ενήλικη D. Melanogaster

Author

Κολώνια, Μαρία Α.

Thesis advisor

Δελιδάκης, Χρήστος

Reviewer

Παυλόπουλος, Αναστάσιος
Μοναστηριώτη, Μαρία

Abstract

The central nervous system in Drosophila melanogaster originates from a single cell type, the Neuroblasts (NBs). It is known that some proneural genes (ac, sc, l’sc, ase) form a complex, the Achaete-Scute Complex (AS-C) which seems to be necessary for the differentiation of the nervous system, both central and peripheral. In order to elucidate the chromatin alterations in NBs during differentiation, chip-seq (Chromatin Immunoprecipitation followed by deep sequencing) was performed for proneural transcription factors in embryonic neuroectoderm (st. 8-11 – the stages where NBs are normally formed) and 11 regions related with genes that promote neural fate, were found to act as enhancers. In order to investigate the dependence of these enhancers’ activation with the AS-C, transgenic flies with these enhancers expressed under a reporter gene were made and scanned in embryos mutated for these genes (ac, sc, l’sc, ase), named Def(1)sc^B57 (loss of AS-C). No expression of the enhancers in question was observed (submitted data of V. Theodorou et al). In this study, we investigated whether their expression could be rescued in the presence of ase, a proneural gene that seems to have a different functional role than the rest. We saw that the expression of these same enhancers is partially saved in embryos mutated for ac, sc, l’sc but with spared ase (named Def(1)sc¹⁹ embryos), which indicates that ase might be sufficient for their activation. The second question that we raised was whether the same enhancers are active in different tissues and developmental stages where the AS-C has been documented to be active. We checked their expression in larval brain, larval imaginal discs and adult gut and we saw that most of them are widely expressed in more than one tissue. These data indicate that the differentiation of the nervous system in D. melanogaster could use the same set of genes and enhancers throughout development and adult life, and that it is closely related with the AS-C.

Language

English

Subject

AS-C

CNS

Embryogenesis

Enhancers

Gut

Neural development

Neuroblasts

SOPs

Transcription