Chromosomal distribution of PcG proteins during Drosophila development

• Published in: PLoS biology 2006-06, Vol.4 (6), p.e170-e170
• Main Authors: Nègre, Nicolas, Hennetin, Jérôme, Sun, Ling V, Lavrov, Sergey, Bellis, Michel, White, Kevin P, Cavalli, Giacomo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Biochemistry, Molecular Biology; Chemical properties; Chromatin; Chromatin - genetics; Chromatin - metabolism; Chromatin - ultrastructure; Chromatin Immunoprecipitation - methods; Chromosomes; Deoxyribonucleic acid; Development; Development Biology; DNA; DNA methylation; DNA-Binding Proteins - genetics; DNA-Binding Proteins - metabolism; DNA-Binding Proteins - physiology; Drosophila; Drosophila - embryology; Drosophila - genetics; Drosophila - metabolism; Drosophila Proteins - genetics; Drosophila Proteins - metabolism; Drosophila Proteins - physiology; Embryo, Nonmammalian - anatomy & histology; Embryo, Nonmammalian - metabolism; Embryology and Organogenesis; Embryonic Development - genetics; Female; Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; Genes; Genetic aspects; Genetic regulation; Genetics/Genomics/Gene Therapy; Genomes; Genomics; In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence; Life Sciences; Male; Molecular Biology/Structural Biology; Nuclear Proteins - genetics; Nuclear Proteins - metabolism; Nucleoproteins - genetics; Nucleoproteins - metabolism; Nucleoproteins - physiology; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis - methods; Polycomb Repressive Complex 1; Proteins; Regulation; Repressor Proteins - genetics; Repressor Proteins - metabolism; RNA polymerase; Stem cells; Transcription Factors - genetics; Transcription Factors - metabolism
• ISSN: 1545-7885; 1544-9173; 1545-7885
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0040170

Polycomb group (PcG) proteins are able to maintain the memory of silent transcriptional states of homeotic genes throughout development. In Drosophila, they form multimeric complexes that bind to specific DNA regulatory elements named PcG response elements (PREs). To date, few PREs have been identified and the chromosomal distribution of PcG proteins during development is unknown. We used chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) with genomic tiling path microarrays to analyze the binding profile of the PcG proteins Polycomb (PC) and Polyhomeotic (PH) across 10 Mb of euchromatin. We also analyzed the distribution of GAGA factor (GAF), a sequence-specific DNA binding protein that is found at most previously identified PREs. Our data show that PC and PH often bind to clustered regions within large loci that encode transcription factors which play multiple roles in developmental patterning and in the regulation of cell proliferation. GAF co-localizes with PC and PH to a limited extent, suggesting that GAF is not a necessary component of chromatin at PREs. Finally, the chromosome-association profile of PC and PH changes during development, suggesting that the function of these proteins in the regulation of some of their target genes might be more dynamic than previously anticipated.