Nascent-Seq analysis of Drosophila cycling gene expression

摘要

Rhythmic mRNA expression is a hallmark of circadian rhythms. To address this regulation in Drosophila, we used high throughput sequencing to compare nascent RNA and mRNA levels in fly heads at different times of day. This indicated that some genes undergo rhythmic transcription with no impact on mRNA, whereas a few strongly rhythmic mRNAs have weak transcriptional oscillations. A substantial number of rhythmic genes manifest more robust mRNA cycling than transcriptional cycling, indicating that post-transcriptional regulation plays a widespread role in boosting circadian gene expression amplitude. Our study (pp. E275-E284) highlights the importance of directly assaying transcription to understand gene regulation.