TY - JOUR TI - Kinetic sculpting of the seven stripes of the Drosophila even-skipped gene AU - Berrocal, Augusto AU - Lammers, Nicholas C AU - Garcia, Hernan G AU - Eisen, Michael B A2 - Singer, Robert H A2 - Barkai, Naama VL - 9 PY - 2020 DA - 2020/12/10 SP - e61635 C1 - eLife 2020;9:e61635 DO - 10.7554/eLife.61635 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.61635 AB - We used live imaging to visualize the transcriptional dynamics of the Drosophila melanogaster even-skipped gene at single-cell and high-temporal resolution as its seven stripe expression pattern forms, and developed tools to characterize and visualize how transcriptional bursting varies over time and space. We find that despite being created by the independent activity of five enhancers, even-skipped stripes are sculpted by the same kinetic phenomena: a coupled increase of burst frequency and amplitude. By tracking the position and activity of individual nuclei, we show that stripe movement is driven by the exchange of bursting nuclei from the posterior to anterior stripe flanks. Our work provides a conceptual, theoretical and computational framework for dissecting pattern formation in space and time, and reveals how the coordinated transcriptional activity of individual nuclei shapes complex developmental patterns. KW - transcription KW - transcriptional bursting KW - enhancers KW - development JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -