Hunchback mRNA transcript halflife

Range ~60 min
Organism Fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster
Reference Garcia HG, Tikhonov M, Lin A, Gregor T. Quantitative imaging of transcription in living Drosophila embryos links polymerase activity to patterning. Curr Biol. 2013 Nov 4 23(21):2140-5. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2013.08.054. p.2140 right column bottom paragraphPubMed ID24139738
Primary Source S.C. Little, M. Tikhonov, T. Gregor Precise developmental gene expression arises from globally stochastic transcriptional activity Cell, 154 (2013), pp. 789–800 doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2013.07.025.PubMed ID23953111
Method P.2140 left column 2nd paragraph:"[Investigators’] technique allows for in vivo monitoring of nascent mRNA transcripts using a DNA sequence that upon transcription forms an mRNA stem loop. Cassettes with multiple copies of the stem loop are bound specifically by a constitutively expressed protein fused to GFP resulting in spatially localized fluorescence (Figure 1A). Using this technique, [investigators] examine the step-like expression of the Bicoid (Bcd) activated hunchback (hb) P2 enhancer and promoter (Figures S1A and S1B available online), one of the best-studied expression patterns in the fly embryo [refs 14, 15]."
Comments p.2140 right column bottom paragraph:"[Investigators] link the transcriptional dynamics of the 5’ construct to the emergence of the macroscopic pattern, whose formation results from the accumulation of cytoplasmic mRNA transcripts with a half-life of over 3 hr [ref 19] (in comparison, endogenous hb [hunchback] transcripts are stable for ~60 min [primary source])."
Entered by Uri M
ID 111723