Stage-specific chromosomal association of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Drosophila</Emphasis> dMBD2/3 during genome activation

The Drosophila gene dMBD2/3 encodes a protein with significant homologies to the mammalian methyl-DNA binding proteins MBD2 and MBD3. These proteins are essential components of chromatin complexes involved in epigenetic gene regulation. Because the available in vitro data on dMBD2/3 are conflicting we have started an in vivo characterization of dMBD2/3. We detected expression of two isoforms specifically during embryonic development. Staining of whole embryos combined with high-resolution confocal microscopy revealed a highly regulated spatial distribution. During the syncytial blastoderm stage, dMBD2/3 formed speckles that localized to the cytoplasm. Shortly after, during the cellular blastoderm stage, the protein entered the nucleus and formed bright foci that associated with DNA. This rapid transition coincided with the activation of the embryonic genome. A similar observation was made during activation of the spermatocyte genome as dMBD2/3 formed distinct foci associated with the activated Y chromosome. Our results indicate that dMBD2/3 forms specialized nuclear compartments to keep certain genes epigenetically silenced during genome activation.     

Nuclear reorganisation and chromatin decondensation are conserved, but distinct, mechanisms linked to Hox gene activation

The relocalisation of some genes to positions outside chromosome territories, and the visible decondensation or unfolding of interphase chromatin, are two striking facets of nuclear reorganisation linked to gene activation that have been assumed to be related to each other. Here, in a study of nuclear reorganisation around the Hoxd cluster, we suggest that this may not be the case. Despite its very different genomic environment from Hoxb, Hoxd also loops out from its chromosome territory, and unfolds, upon activation in differentiating embryonic stem (ES) cells and in the tailbud of the embryo. However, looping out and decondensation are not simply two different manifestations of the same underlying change in chromatin structure. We show that, in the limb bud of the embryonic day 9.5 embryo, where Hoxd is also activated, there is visible decondensation of chromatin but no detectable movement of the region out from the chromosome territory. During ES cell differentiation, decondensed alleles can also be found inside of chromosome territories, and loci that have looped out of the territories can appear to still be condensed. We conclude that evolutionarily conserved chromosome remodelling mechanisms, predating the duplication of mammalian Hox loci, underlie Hox regulation along the rostrocaudal embryonic axis. However, we suggest that separate modes of regulation can modify Hoxd chromatin in different ways in different developmental contexts.