In vivo study of gene expression with an enhanced dual-color fluorescent transcriptional timer

  1. Li He  Is a corresponding author
  2. Richard Binari
  3. Jiuhong Huang
  4. Julia Falo-Sanjuan
  5. Norbert Perrimon  Is a corresponding author
  1. Harvard Medical School, United States
  2. Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences, China
  3. Tufts University, United States

Abstract

Fluorescent transcriptional reporters are widely used as signaling reporters and biomarkers to monitor pathway activities and determine cell type identities. However, a large amount of dynamic information is lost due to the long half-life of the fluorescent proteins. To better detect dynamics, fluorescent transcriptional reporters can be destabilized to shorten their half-lives. However, applications of this approach in vivo are limited due to significant reduction of signal intensities. To overcome this limitation, we enhanced translation of a destabilized fluorescent protein and demonstrate the advantages of this approach by characterizing spatio-temporal changes of transcriptional activities in Drosophila. In addition, by combining a fast-folding destabilized fluorescent protein and a slow-folding long-lived fluorescent protein, we generated a dual-color transcriptional timer that provides spatio-temporal information about signaling pathway activities. Finally, we demonstrate the use of this transcriptional timer to identify new genes with dynamic expression patterns.

Data availability

All essential data are provided in the supplementary materials. All the reagents created by this study (plasmids and transgenic flies) will be donated to public domains including Addgene and Bloomington Stock Center.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Li He

    Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States
    For correspondence
    Li_He@hms.harvard.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-2155-606X
  2. Richard Binari

    Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Jiuhong Huang

    International Academy of Targeted Therapeutics and Innovation, Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences, Chongqing, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  4. Julia Falo-Sanjuan

    School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, Tufts University, Medford, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Norbert Perrimon

    Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States
    For correspondence
    perrimon@receptor.med.harvard.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-7542-472X

Funding

National Institute of General Medical Sciences

  • Norbert Perrimon

Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation

  • Li He

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Copyright

© 2019, He et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

Metrics

  • 21,865
    views
  • 2,327
    downloads
  • 77
    citations

Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.

Download links

A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.

Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)

Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)

Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)

  1. Li He
  2. Richard Binari
  3. Jiuhong Huang
  4. Julia Falo-Sanjuan
  5. Norbert Perrimon
(2019)
In vivo study of gene expression with an enhanced dual-color fluorescent transcriptional timer
eLife 8:e46181.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.46181

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.46181

Further reading

    1. Developmental Biology
    Mehmet Mahsum Kaplan, Erika Hudacova ... Ondrej Machon
    Research Article

    Hair follicle development is initiated by reciprocal molecular interactions between the placode-forming epithelium and the underlying mesenchyme. Cell fate transformation in dermal fibroblasts generates a cell niche for placode induction by activation of signaling pathways WNT, EDA, and FGF in the epithelium. These successive paracrine epithelial signals initiate dermal condensation in the underlying mesenchyme. Although epithelial signaling from the placode to mesenchyme is better described, little is known about primary mesenchymal signals resulting in placode induction. Using genetic approach in mice, we show that Meis2 expression in cells derived from the neural crest is critical for whisker formation and also for branching of trigeminal nerves. While whisker formation is independent of the trigeminal sensory innervation, MEIS2 in mesenchymal dermal cells orchestrates the initial steps of epithelial placode formation and subsequent dermal condensation. MEIS2 regulates the expression of transcription factor Foxd1, which is typical of pre-dermal condensation. However, deletion of Foxd1 does not affect whisker development. Overall, our data suggest an early role of mesenchymal MEIS2 during whisker formation and provide evidence that whiskers can normally develop in the absence of sensory innervation or Foxd1 expression.

    1. Developmental Biology
    Hanee Lee, Junsu Kang ... Junho Lee
    Research Article

    The evolutionarily conserved Hippo (Hpo) pathway has been shown to impact early development and tumorigenesis by governing cell proliferation and apoptosis. However, its post-developmental roles are relatively unexplored. Here, we demonstrate its roles in post-mitotic cells by showing that defective Hpo signaling accelerates age-associated structural and functional decline of neurons in Caenorhabditis elegans. Loss of wts-1/LATS, the core kinase of the Hpo pathway, resulted in premature deformation of touch neurons and impaired touch responses in a yap-1/YAP-dependent manner, the downstream transcriptional co-activator of LATS. Decreased movement as well as microtubule destabilization by treatment with colchicine or disruption of microtubule-stabilizing genes alleviated the neuronal deformation of wts-1 mutants. Colchicine exerted neuroprotective effects even during normal aging. In addition, the deficiency of a microtubule-severing enzyme spas-1 also led to precocious structural deformation. These results consistently suggest that hyper-stabilized microtubules in both wts-1-deficient neurons and normally aged neurons are detrimental to the maintenance of neuronal structural integrity. In summary, Hpo pathway governs the structural and functional maintenance of differentiated neurons by modulating microtubule stability, raising the possibility that the microtubule stability of fully developed neurons could be a promising target to delay neuronal aging. Our study provides potential therapeutic approaches to combat age- or disease-related neurodegeneration.