In our laboratory we investigate the regulation of intestina

In our laboratory, we investigate the regulation of intestinal stem cells in fruit flies by a transcriptional repress or called Escargot (Esg). We identified a gene called Amun as a potential target of Esg, and hypothesized that if we inhibited Esg function within cells, the transcription of Amun would be de-repressed, and the amount of Amun mRNA within cells would increase. How can we be sure that this accumulation in Amun mRNA is due to increased transcription and what might be another alternative hypothesis that, if true, would lead to the same observation?

Additional tools that we can use for this experiment are 1) antibodies for immunoprecipitation of RNA pol II, 2) \"RNA sequencing\", and 3) transcriptional inhibitor.

Solution

Since Escargot, an transcriptional repressor, would inhibited by external souces, then it could not be able to repress the effect of transcription of the Amun mRNA.