Adult fly population cages were maintained at 24 ̊C on a 24-hour light cycle (14 hours light/10 hours dark). After a 2hr pre-lay, embryos were collected on agar plates for a 2 hour interval during a light cycle, aged appropriately, dechorionated and frozen on dry ice.

Frozen samples were homogenized and extracted using the TRIzol reagent protocol (Invitrogen). RNA was purified on an RNeasy spin column (Qiagen), and DNase treated. Polyadenylated RNAs were purified from total RNA extracts via oligo(dT) binding, using standard Illumina protocol. The poly(A)+ RNA was fragmented using divalent cations under elevated temperature, following by first and second strand cDNA synthesis primed with random hexamers. The cDNA fragments were end-repaired using T4 DNA polymerase and Klenow DNA polymerase, and phosphorylated at their 5' ends with T4 polynucleotide kinase. After adding A bases to the 3' end of the DNA fragments, Illumina adaptor oligonucleotides were ligated to the ends and ~ 300 bp fragments were isolated from an agarose gel, enriched by PCR amplification, and gel-purified again.