A searchable image resource of Drosophila GAL4-driver expression patterns with single neuron resolution
Abstract
Precise, repeatable genetic access to specific neurons via GAL4/UAS and related methods is a key advantage of Drosophila neuroscience. Neuronal targeting is typically documented using light microscopy of full GAL4 expression patterns, which generally lack the single-cell resolution required for reliable cell type identification. Here we use stochastic GAL4 labeling with the MultiColor FlpOut approach to generate cellular resolution confocal images at large scale. We are releasing aligned images of 74,000 such adult central nervous systems. An anticipated use of this resource is to bridge the gap between neurons identified by electron or light microscopy. Identifying individual neurons that make up each GAL4 expression pattern improves the prediction of split-GAL4 combinations targeting particular neurons. To this end we have made the images searchable on the NeuronBridge website. We demonstrate the potential of NeuronBridge to rapidly and effectively identify neuron matches based on morphology across imaging modalities and datasets.
Data availability
The footprint of this image resource (~105 TB) exceeds our known current practical limits on standard public data repositories. Thus, we have made all the primary data (and a variety of processed outputs) used in this study freely available under a CC BY 4.0 license at https://doi.org/10.25378/janelia.21266625.v1 and through the publicly accessible website https://gen1mcfo.janelia.org. The images are made searchable with the same permissions on the user-friendly NeuronBridge website https://neuronbridge.janelia.org. All other data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
- Geoffrey Wilson Meissner
- Aljoscha Nern
- Zachary Dorman
- Gina M DePasquale
- Kaitlyn Forster
- Theresa Gibney
- Joanna H Hausenfluck
- Yisheng He
- Nirmala A Iyer
- Jennifer Jeter
- Lauren Johnson
- Rebecca M Johnston
- Kelley Lee
- Brian Melton
- Brianna Yarbrough
- Christopher T Zugates
- Jody Clements
- Cristian Goina
- Hideo Otsuna
- Konrad Rokicki
- Robert R Svirskas
- Yoshinori Aso
- Gwyneth M Card
- Barry J Dickson
- Erica Ehrhardt
- Jens Goldammer
- Masayoshi Ito
- Dagmar Kainmueller
- Wyatt Korff
- Lisa Mais
- Ryo Minegishi
- Shigehiro Namiki
- Gerald M Rubin
- Gabriella R Sterne
- Tanya Wolff
- Oz Malkesman
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Copyright
© 2023, Meissner et al.
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.
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