Single cell transcriptome atlas of the Drosophila larval brain

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Abstract

Cell diversity of the brain and how it is affected by starvation, remains largely unknown. Here we introduce a single cell transcriptome atlas of the entire Drosophila first instar larval brain. We first assigned cell-type identity based on known marker genes, distinguishing five major groups: neural progenitors, differentiated neurons, glia, undifferentiated neurons and non-neural cells. All major classes were further subdivided into multiple subtypes, revealing biological features of various cell-types. We further assessed transcriptional changes in response to starvation at the single-cell level. While after starvation the composition of the brain remains unaffected, transcriptional profile of several cell clusters changed. Intriguingly, different cell-types show very distinct responses to starvation, suggesting the presence of cell-specific programs for nutrition availability. Establishing a single-cell transcriptome atlas of the larval brain provides a powerful tool to explore cell diversity and assess genetic profiles from developmental, functional and behavioral perspectives.

Data availability

The single-cell sequencing data has been deposited in GEO under the accession code GSE134722.

The following data sets were generated

(2019) Single cell transcriptome atlas of the Drosophila larval brain
NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus, GSE134722.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=GSE134722

Article and author information

Author details

Clarisse Brunet Avalos

Department of Biology, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Rémy Bruggmann

Department of Biology, Institute of Cell Biology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-4733-7922
Simon G Sprecher

Department of Biology, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland

For correspondence
simon.sprecher@unifr.ch

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-9060-3750

Funding

Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung (31003A_149499)

Simon G Sprecher

Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung (SystemsX- SynaptiX RTD)

Rémy Bruggmann
Simon G Sprecher

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Copyright

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.