Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 4, 2026

Labeling of Single Cells in the Central Nervous System of Drosophila melanogaster
Published on: March 4, 2013
Vostok: A looping factor for the organization of the regulatory genome in the Drosophila brain
Jie Hu1, Xiao Li1, Dmitry Lomaev2
1Lewis-Sigler Institute, Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA.
Abstract:
Drosophila tethering elements mediate long-range enhancer-promoter interactions and connect the promoters of distant paralogous genes. Micro-C maps identified 645 such loops in the Drosophila larval brain, spanning distances of 25 to 250 kb. Here, we demonstrate that the MADF-containing Vostok protein acts as a looping factor. It binds to GCAACA motifs that are overrepresented in brain tethering elements. There is a loss of 47 (7%) of the loops in Vostok mutants, resulting in diminished expression of associated genes. Vostok is largely independent of another looping factor, GAGA-associated factor (GAF). Only 9 loops are disrupted in both Vostok and GAF mutants, raising the possibility of a combinatorial code for tether-tether interactions. This is supported by the reliance of two previously identified meta-loops spanning 6 Mb on both GAF and Vostok. We discuss the prospects of using different combinations of looping factors to engineer 3D associations in animal genomes.
More Related Videos
10:13Dissection and Immunofluorescent Staining of Mushroom Body and Photoreceptor Neurons in Adult Drosophila melanogaster Brains
Published on: November 6, 2017
06:45Electrophysiological Recording of The Central Nervous System Activity of Third-Instar Drosophila Melanogaster
Published on: November 21, 2018
Related Concept Videos
Organization of Genes
Organization of Genes
Position-effect Variegation
Regulation of Expression Occurs at Multiple Steps
Transcription results in the generation of precursor (pre-mRNA) that consists of both exons and introns, which needs further processing before being translated to a...
Regulation of Expression Occurs at Multiple Steps
Transcription results in the generation of precursor (pre-mRNA) that consists of both exons and introns, which needs further processing before being translated to a...
Regulation of Expression at Multiple Steps