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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2022.03.17.484585

Modelling global mRNA dynamics during Drosophila embryogenesis reveals a relationship between mRNA degradation and P-bodies

Forbes Beadle, L.·Love, J. C.·Shapovalova, Y.·Artemev, A.·Rattray, M.·Ashe, H. L.
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Abstract

Regulation of mRNA degradation is critical for a diverse array of cellular processes and developmental cell fate decisions. Many methods for determining mRNA half-lives rely on transcriptional inhibition or metabolic labelling. Here we use a non-invasive method for estimating half-lives for hundreds of mRNAs in the early Drosophila embryo. This approach uses the intronic and exonic reads from a total RNA-seq time series and Gaussian process regression to model the dynamics of premature and mature mRNAs. We show how regulation of mRNA stability is used to establish a range of mature mRNA dynamics during embryogenesis, despite shared transcription profiles. Using single molecule imaging we provide evidence that, for the mRNAs tested, there is a correlation between short half-life and mRNA association with P-bodies. Moreover, we detect an enrichment of mRNA 3 ends in P-bodies in the early embryo, consistent with 5 to 3 degradation occurring in P-bodies for at least a subset of mRNAs. We discuss our findings in relation to recently published data suggesting that the primary function of P-bodies in other biological contexts is mRNA storage.

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Forbes Beadle, L., Love, J. C., Shapovalova, Y., Artemev, A., Rattray, M., Ashe, H. L.. 2022-03-18. Modelling global mRNA dynamics during Drosophila embryogenesis reveals a relationship between mRNA degradation and P-bodies. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.03.17.484585

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