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

  1. Geoffrey Wilson Meissner

    Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, United States
    For correspondence
    meissnerg@janelia.hhmi.org
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-0369-9788
  2. Aljoscha Nern

    Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, United States
    For correspondence
    nerna@janelia.hhmi.org
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-3822-489X
  3. Zachary Dorman

    Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-9933-7217
  4. Gina M DePasquale

    Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Kaitlyn Forster

    Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  6. Theresa Gibney

    Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-5461-724X
  7. Joanna H Hausenfluck

    Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  8. Yisheng He

    Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  9. Nirmala A Iyer

    Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  10. Jennifer Jeter

    Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  11. Lauren Johnson

    Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  12. Rebecca M Johnston

    Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  13. Kelley Lee

    Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  14. Brian Melton

    Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  15. Brianna Yarbrough

    Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  16. Christopher T Zugates

    Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-1882-3665
  17. Jody Clements

    Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  18. Cristian Goina

    Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-2835-7602
  19. Hideo Otsuna

    Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-2107-8881
  20. Konrad Rokicki

    Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-2799-9833
  21. Robert R Svirskas

    Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-8374-6008
  22. Yoshinori Aso

    Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, United States
    For correspondence
    asoy@janelia.hhmi.org
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-2939-1688
  23. Gwyneth M Card

    Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, United States
    For correspondence
    cardg@janelia.hhmi.org
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-7679-3639
  24. Barry J Dickson

    Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, United States
    For correspondence
    dicksonb@janelia.hhmi.org
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-0715-892X
  25. Erica Ehrhardt

    Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-9252-1414
  26. Jens Goldammer

    Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-5623-8339
  27. Masayoshi Ito

    Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  28. Dagmar Kainmueller

    Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-9830-2415
  29. Wyatt Korff

    Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, United States
    For correspondence
    korffw@janelia.hhmi.org
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-8396-1533
  30. Lisa Mais

    Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  31. Ryo Minegishi

    Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  32. Shigehiro Namiki

    Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-1559-799X
  33. Gerald M Rubin

    Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, United States
    For correspondence
    rubing@janelia.hhmi.org
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-8762-8703
  34. Gabriella R Sterne

    Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-7221-648X
  35. Tanya Wolff

    Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-8681-1749
  36. Oz Malkesman

    Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-2219-7476

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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  1. Geoffrey Wilson Meissner
  2. Aljoscha Nern
  3. Zachary Dorman
  4. Gina M DePasquale
  5. Kaitlyn Forster
  6. Theresa Gibney
  7. Joanna H Hausenfluck
  8. Yisheng He
  9. Nirmala A Iyer
  10. Jennifer Jeter
  11. Lauren Johnson
  12. Rebecca M Johnston
  13. Kelley Lee
  14. Brian Melton
  15. Brianna Yarbrough
  16. Christopher T Zugates
  17. Jody Clements
  18. Cristian Goina
  19. Hideo Otsuna
  20. Konrad Rokicki
  21. Robert R Svirskas
  22. Yoshinori Aso
  23. Gwyneth M Card
  24. Barry J Dickson
  25. Erica Ehrhardt
  26. Jens Goldammer
  27. Masayoshi Ito
  28. Dagmar Kainmueller
  29. Wyatt Korff
  30. Lisa Mais
  31. Ryo Minegishi
  32. Shigehiro Namiki
  33. Gerald M Rubin
  34. Gabriella R Sterne
  35. Tanya Wolff
  36. Oz Malkesman
(2023)
A searchable image resource of Drosophila GAL4-driver expression patterns with single neuron resolution
eLife 12:e80660.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.80660

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.80660

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