Genome Organization and Transcriptional Precision in the Drosophila Embryo

The CHOP Center for Computational and Genomic Medicine Presents a Lecture Series:

Genome Organization and Transcriptional Precision in the Drosophila Embryo

Host:

Mustafa Mir, PhD, Assistant Professor, Cell and Developmental Biology

Speaker:

Michael Levine, PhD Director, Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics Professor, Molecular Biology Princeton University

About Dr. Levine's research:

For many years Dr. Levine's lab has used the early Drosophila embryo as an assay system to study the properties of transcriptional enhancers in development. In general, enhancers mediate authentic spatial patterns of gene expression when attached to reporter genes; however, they often fail to recapitulate normal temporal profiles when taken out of the context of the native locus.

His team examined the timing of Hox expression within the Antennapedia gene complex to address the role of genome organization in temporal precision. Timing depends on GAGA-rich “tethering” elements, which foster long-range connectivity of distal enhancers and their target promoters. These elements work independently of insulator DNAs that delineate topoloically associating domain boundaries. A whole-genome survey of GAGA tethering elements identified many instances of long-range enhancer-promoter communication.

Dr. Levine and colleagues also observed “linkage loops”, whereby GAGA tethering elements connect the promoter regions of linked orthologous genes over distances of 50-250 kb. Linkage loops permit coordinate regulation of linked genes by shared enhancers. This is a surprisingly common feature of the Drosophila genome, and probably vertebrates as well.

Please email Samantha Cole at colest [at] chop.edu (colest[at]chop[dot]edu) if you would like to meet the speaker.

WHERE:

Virtually, via Zoom
Passcode: 728146