The E-protein Daughterless regulates protein translation and memory in adult Drosophila nervous system [RNA-seq]

Daughterless (Da), the Drosophila melanogaster homolog of mammalian E-protein transcription factor 4 (TCF4), is well studied in fruit fly embryonic development but its functions in adult nervous system are poorly understood. Mutations in human TCF4 gene lead to intellectual disabilities such as Pitt-Hopkins syndrome and TCF4 has also been linked to schizophrenia. Here, to explore the roles of Da in the Drosophila mature brain, we map Da DNA binding sites and study the transcriptomics of the brains where Da function is inhibited by pan-neuronal Extramacrohaete (Emc) overexpression, in both male and female Drosophila Our transcriptome analyses reveal that in the adult brain Da regulates the expression of genes involved in behavior, memory, synaptic signaling, protein translation, and metabolic processes. Moreover, combining the RNA sequencing data with Da ChIP sequencing results indicates that genes associated with neuronal projection guidance, metabolism, and translation are direct targets of Da. In addition, we validate the involvement of Da in memory formation. Overall, our results provide valuable information about the functions of Da in the adult brain and aid in better understanding the mechanisms of TCF4-related disorders. Overall design: To study the roles of Da in adult Drosophila nervous system, we investigated the brain transcriptome of flies where Da activity was suppressed by pan-neuronal Emc overexpression. For Emc overexpression elavC155-Gal4 was used. Differentially expressed genes in the brains of EmcOE (elavC155-Gal4>emc) flies were analysed compared to Control (elavC155-Gal4xwhite*) flies.