[Drosophila] FlyAtlas.org: 5 new tissues added

[Julian Dow]

http://flyatlas.org is an Affymetrix microarray-based atlas of gene 
expression in multiple tissues of adult and larval Drosophila 
melanogaster. It been accessed by over 5000 users in the last three 
months, from nearly everywhere except Alaska.

We are delighted to announce the addition of multiple new tissues:
   - larval salivary gland
   - larval midgut
   - larval hindgut (all from feeding third instar larvae)
   - adult spermatheca from 7-day old mated females
   - adult spermatheca from 7-day old virgin females

Data quality
We take great pride in the purity of the dissections, as evidenced by 
high enrichments relative to whole fly. Here are some interesting 
selections:

Larval salivary gland
Most enriched (16217x !): anonymous gene CG12715
Highly enriched for: puparial adhesion and sgs genes
Most enriched transcription factor: sage (at 240x)
Most enriched receptor: ETH receptor (at 51x). I'd always wondered where 
it was!

Larval midgut
Most enriched (10755x !): anonymous gene CG5084
Enriched for: structural components of peritrophic membrane
Most enriched TF: larval-specific transcript of br (33x)
Most enriched receptor: methuselah-like 9 (13x)

Larval hindgut
Most enriched (at just 6331x): lcp4
Enriched in: larval cuticle proteins (Lcps) and larval serum proteins (lsps)
Most enriched TF: orthopedia (56x), previously implicated in CNS 
development. Hence the phrase "His brains are in his ...."
Most enriched receptor: leucokinin receptor (69x)

Virgin spermatheca
Most enriched: anonymous serine-type endopeptidase CG17234 (334x)
Enriched in: serine-type endopeptidases
Most enriched TF: pannier (38x)
Most enriched receptor: leucine-rich repeat-containing G protein-coupled 
receptor 2 (rk) (10x)

Mated spermatheca
Most enriched: anonymous serine-type endopeptidase CG17234 (650x)
Enriched in: serine-type endopeptidases
Most enriched TF: pannier (45x)
Most enriched receptor:  leucine-rich repeat-containing G 
protein-coupled receptor 2 (rk) (14x)

You may be wondering whether it was worth burning the extra $2000 for 
separate mated and virgin spermatheca. But this provides a nice internal 
control for consistency, and differences between the two are very 
informative.

For scriptwriters, programmatic calls to the database are possible, e.g.
http://flyatlas.org/atlas.cgi?name=CG1147
You can search with FBgn, CG number, Affy oligo, gene symbol or free text.

These data were prepared and placed in the public domain as a service to 
the Drosophila community, by the UK’s Biotechnology and Biological 
Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) through their Investigating Gene 
Function (IGF) and bioinformatics and biological resources (BBR) 
initiatives. Over the last 4 years, our facility has provided 1000 free 
Affymetrix arrays to the UK fly community. Further details at: 
http://www.mblab.gla.ac.uk/igf/

Enjoy!
    Julian Dow (j.a.t.dow from bio.gla.ac.uk)


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