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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 21, 2026

Quantitative Comparison of cis-Regulatory Element (CRE) Activities in Transgenic Drosophila melanogaster

Quantitative Comparison of cis-Regulatory Element (CRE) Activities in Transgenic Drosophila melanogaster

Published on: December 19, 2011

Comparing enhancer action in cis and in trans.

Jack R Bateman¹, Justine E Johnson, Melissa N Locke

¹Biology Department, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine 04011, USA. jbateman@bowdoin.edu

|June 1, 2012

Summary

This study shows that enhancers can activate genes on separate chromosomes in Drosophila melanogaster. This enhancer-promoter interaction occurs in a variable pattern and can be shared between multiple gene targets.

Area of Science:

Genetics
Molecular Biology
Developmental Biology

Background:

Interchromosomal interactions are crucial for nuclear organization.
Enhancers can regulate gene expression on separate chromosomes (acting in trans).
Mechanisms of enhancer action in trans are not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate enhancer action in trans using a transgenic approach in Drosophila melanogaster.
To understand how enhancers interact with promoters on different chromosomes.
To analyze the competition and sharing of enhancer activity between cis and trans targets.

Main Methods:

Utilized phiC31-based recombinase-mediated cassette exchange (RMCE) for precise transgene insertion.
Created transgenes with the GMR enhancer, minimal promoter, and fluorescent reporters.

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Quantitative Comparison of cis-Regulatory Element (CRE) Activities in Transgenic Drosophila melanogaster

Quantitative Comparison of cis-Regulatory Element (CRE) Activities in Transgenic Drosophila melanogaster

Published on: December 19, 2011

Dissection of Enhancer Function Using Multiplex CRISPR-based Enhancer Interference in Cell Lines

Dissection of Enhancer Function Using Multiplex CRISPR-based Enhancer Interference in Cell Lines

Published on: June 2, 2018

Placed transgenes on homologous chromosomes to leverage endogenous somatic pairing.

Analyzed gene expression patterns at single-cell resolution.

Main Results:

Demonstrated that the GMR enhancer activates a promoter in trans in a variegated pattern.
Showed that promoters in cis and in trans compete for enhancer activity.
Quantified the negative impact of one promoter target on the expression from another.
Confirmed that a single enhancer can activate multiple promoter targets on separate chromosomes within the same nucleus.

Conclusions:

The GMR enhancer can indeed act in trans to regulate gene expression in Drosophila.
Enhancer-promoter interactions in trans are stochastic and subject to competition.
A single enhancer can modulate expression from multiple gene targets located on different chromosomes.