Expression of E93 provides an instructive cue to control dynamic enhancer activity and chromatin accessibility during development.

Abstract

How temporal cues combine with spatial inputs to control gene expression during development is poorly understood. Here, we test the hypothesis that the Drosophila transcription factor E93 controls temporal gene expression by regulating chromatin accessibility. Precocious expression of E93 early in wing development reveals that it can simultaneously activate and deactivate different target enhancers. Notably, the precocious patterns of enhancer activity resemble the wild-type patterns that occur later in development, suggesting that expression of E93 alters the competence of enhancers to respond to spatial cues. Genomic profiling reveals that precocious E93 expression is sufficient to regulate chromatin accessibility at a subset of its targets. These accessibility changes mimic those that normally occur later in development, indicating that precocious E93 accelerates the wild-type developmental program. Further, we find that target enhancers that do not respond to precocious E93 in early wings become responsive after a developmental transition, suggesting that parallel temporal pathways work alongside E93. These findings support a model wherein E93 expression functions as an instructive cue that defines a broad window of developmental time through control of chromatin accessibility.