Histones and histone acetylation during the embryonic development of Drosophila hydei

Histones and histone acetylation have been investigated during three stages of Drosophila hydei embryogenesis--early gastrula, late gastrula and organogenesis. No essential changes in the electrophoretic pattern of the histones have been revealed during the stages examined. However, we established an enhanced level of [14C]acetate incorporation at the time of extensive gene activation during gastrulation as well as some quantitative differences in the pattern of acetylation during gastrula and organogenesis. We consider most of them to be related to chromatin assembly during the stage of gastrulation and suggest that the correlation between histone acetylation and gene activity during Drosophila embryogenesis concerns histone H3 acetylation. The involvement of both acetylation and deacetylation in the steady-state acetylation level has been examined as well. We have found that the higher acetyltransferase activity is responsible for the enhanced level of acetate incorporation during gastrulation.