Chromatin Immunoprecipitation and Sequencing (ChIP-seq) of Heat Shock Factor (HSF) Temporal Binding Sites during the Critical Period of 8-12 Hr After Egg Lay (AEL) in Drosophila melanogaster Embryogenesis
Background
Heat Shock Response was discovered by the Italian scientist Ferrucio Ritossa, when he saw puffs in the Drosophila polytene chromosome on inducing them with heat. It was later discovered that this Heat Shock Response was regulated by a transcription factor called Heat Shock Factor (HSF). The HSF is responsible for the activation of the Heat Shock Proteins (HSPs) and Heat Shock Cognates (HSCs) genes by binding to their respective promoter region. The HSPs are molecular chaperones that facilitate protein folding, ubiquitin tagging and proteolytic pathways in the cells to prevent the building of proteolytic toxicity. …show more content…
Further research in the Westwood lab utilized drosophila embryos from a temperature-sensitive HSF (hsf 4) mutant in which the HSF is functionally inactive at a non-permissive temperature above 29oC. To investigate the involvement of HSF in Drosophila development these hsf 4 mutant embryo’s survivability was studied at different time points in embryogenesis. These results showed that HSF was necessary in Drosophila melanogaster embryogenesis during the critical time period of 8-12 hours after egg lay (AEL) under non-heat shock conditions. This phenomenon is promising as it suggests that HSF has a novel role during development besides the Heat Shock
Background
Heat Shock Response was discovered by the Italian scientist Ferrucio Ritossa, when he saw puffs in the Drosophila polytene chromosome on inducing them with heat. It was later discovered that this Heat Shock Response was regulated by a transcription factor called Heat Shock Factor (HSF). The HSF is responsible for the activation of the Heat Shock Proteins (HSPs) and Heat Shock Cognates (HSCs) genes by binding to their respective promoter region. The HSPs are molecular chaperones that facilitate protein folding, ubiquitin tagging and proteolytic pathways in the cells to prevent the building of proteolytic toxicity. …show more content…
Further research in the Westwood lab utilized drosophila embryos from a temperature-sensitive HSF (hsf 4) mutant in which the HSF is functionally inactive at a non-permissive temperature above 29oC. To investigate the involvement of HSF in Drosophila development these hsf 4 mutant embryo’s survivability was studied at different time points in embryogenesis. These results showed that HSF was necessary in Drosophila melanogaster embryogenesis during the critical time period of 8-12 hours after egg lay (AEL) under non-heat shock conditions. This phenomenon is promising as it suggests that HSF has a novel role during development besides the Heat Shock