Using RNA Tags for Multicolor Live Imaging of Chromatin Loci and Transcription in Drosophila Embryos

Hongtao Chen (1, 2) , Thomas Gregor (1, 2, 3)

1 DPPU - Department of Physics, Princeton University
2 Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics
3 Physique des fonctions biologiques / Physics of Biological Functions

Elucidating the biological implications of higher order chromatin architectures in animal development requires simultaneous, quantitative measurements of chromatin dynamics and transcriptional activity in living specimen. Here we describe a multicolor labeling and live imaging approach in embryos of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. The method allows simultaneous measurement of movements of specific loci and their transcriptional activity for developmental genes, enabling new approaches to probe the interaction between 3D chromatin architecture and regulation of gene expression in development.

Keywords: Quantitative live imaging; Drosophila embryos; Transcription; 3D genome architecture

Domains: Quantitative Methods [q-bio.QM]; Biological Physics [physics.bio-ph]; Molecular Networks [q-bio.MN]

Hongtao Chen, Thomas Gregor. Using RNA Tags for Multicolor Live Imaging of Chromatin Loci and Transcription in Drosophila Embryos. Manfred Heinlein. RNA tagging : methods and protocols, 2166, pp.373 - 384, 2020, Methods in molecular biology, 978-1-0716-0712-1. ⟨10.1007/978-1-0716-0712-1_22⟩. ⟨pasteur-03213923⟩