Skip to main content
. 2018 Sep 17;1(5):e201800179. doi: 10.26508/lsa.201800179

Figure 2. Maternally transmitted transposon RNAs cause DNA double-strand breaks and nuclear damage in progeny embryos.

Figure 2.

(A) Quantification of nuclear damage determined by NucBlue Fixed Cell Stain staining of WT (w1118), vasD1/D1; nos-Gal4>GFP-vasWT, and vasD1/D1; vas-Gal4>GFP-vasWT stage 5 embryos. Error bars represent the standard deviation among three biological replicates (Table S4). P-value was determined by t test. Panel shows an embryo without (top) and an embryo with nuclear damage (bottom). Scale bars indicate 100 μm (embryo) and 10 μm (magnification). (B) Immunohistochemical detection of DNA double-strand breaks using antibodies against H2Av pS137 (γH2Av) in WT (w1118), and vasD1/D1; nos-Gal4>GFP-vasWT stage 5 embryos. Whole embryos are presented in (A). Scale bars indicate 5 and 2 μm (5× magnification). (C) Western blot analysis using antibodies against H2Av pS137 (γH2Av) showing protein levels in WT (w1118), vasD1/D1; nos-Gal4>GFP-vasWT, and vasD1/D1; vas-Gal4>GFP-vasWT 1- to 3-h-old embryos. Tubulin was used as a loading control. Table shows quantification of γH2Av levels relative to WT. γH2Av signal was normalized to tubulin signal in individual experiments and was set to one in WT. (D) qPCR analysis of LTR transposons burdock, blood, and gypsy and non-LTR transposon HeT-A RNAs in vasD1/D1; nos-Gal4>GFP-vasWT and vasD1/D1; vas-Gal4>GFP-vasWT early embryos. Expression level of transposons in WT (w1118) was set to one and normalized to 18S rRNA in individual experiments. Error bars represent the standard deviation among three biological replicates. t Test indicated P-values for burdock (0.004), blood (0.002), and HeT-A (0.008) lower than 0.01 (indicated in the chart), whereas gypsy levels were not significantly different (P = 0.4). (E) Western blot analysis using antibodies against HeT-A/Gag showing protein levels in early embryos produced by WT (w1118), vasD1/D1; nos-Gal4>GFP-vasWT, and vasD1/D1; vas-Gal4>GFP-vasWT flies. Tubulin was used as a loading control. The table shows quantification of HeT-A/Gag protein levels relative to WT. HeT-A/Gag signal was normalized to tubulin signal in individual experiments and was set to one in WT.