Visualization of Transvection in Living Drosophila Embryos

How remote enhancers interact with appropriate target genes persists as a central mystery in gene regulation. Here, we exploit the properties of transvection to explore enhancer-promoter communication between homologous chromosomes in living Drosophila embryos. We successfully visualized the activation of an MS2-tagged reporter gene by a defined developmental enhancer located in trans on the other homolog. This trans-homolog activation depends on insulator DNAs, which increase the stability—but not the frequency—of homolog pairing. A pair of heterotypic insulators failed to mediate transvection, raising the possibility that insulator specificity underlies the formation of chromosomal loop domains. Moreover, we found that a shared enhancer co-activates separate PP7 and MS2 reporter genes in cis and in trans. Transvecting alleles weakly compete with one another, raising the possibility that they share a common pool of the transcription machinery. We propose that transvecting alleles form a trans-homolog “hub,” which serves as a scaffold for the accumulation of transcription complexes. Lim et al. explore a process called transvection in living Drosophila embryos, whereby enhancers on one homolog activate transcription units on the other homolog. They show that insulators facilitate transvection by stabilizing allele-allele pairing. Surprisingly, a shared enhancer coactivates a cis-linked PP7 reporter gene along with a trans-linked MS2 reporter contained on the other homolog. This coactivation is consistent with emerging evidence for transcription “hubs” containing clusters of RNA polymerase II and associated activators.