Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 23, 2025

Immunofluorescent Staining for Visualization of Heterochromatin Associated Proteins in Drosophila Salivary Glands
Published on: August 21, 2021
Separation of transcriptional repressor and activator functions in Drosophila HDAC3
Min Tang1,2, Isabel Regadas1, Sergey Belikov1
1Department of Molecular Biosciences, The Wenner-Gren Institute, Stockholm University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden.
Abstract:
The histone deacetylase HDAC3 is associated with the NCoR/SMRT co-repressor complex, and its canonical function is in transcriptional repression, but it can also activate transcription. Here, we show that the repressor and activator functions of HDAC3 can be genetically separated in Drosophila. A lysine substitution in the N terminus (K26A) disrupts its catalytic activity and activator function, whereas a combination of substitutions (HEBI) abrogating the interaction with SMRTER enhances repressor activity beyond wild type in the early embryo. We conclude that the crucial functions of HDAC3 in embryo development involve catalytic-dependent gene activation and non-enzymatic repression by several mechanisms, including tethering of loci to the nuclear periphery.
Related Concept Videos
Co-activators and Co-repressors
Position-effect Variegation
Heterochromatin
Constitutive heterochromatin: It is a highly compact region of chromatin that is mostly concentrated in the centromere and telomere. Unlike euchromatin, the amino acid at...
The Ratio of X Chromosome to Autosomes
Normal male Drosophila has a ratio of one X chromosome to two sets of autosomes. In contrast, normal female...
Euchromatin
Euchromatin is the less dense region of the chromatin and stains lighter. Euchromatin contains histone H3 extensively...
RNA Polymerase II Accessory Proteins

