[Drosophila] flyatlas.org: a new gene expression resource for Drosophila

[Julian Dow]

Flyatlas.org

We are happy to announce a new gene expression 
resource for Drosophila functional genomics: an 
Affymetrix microarray-based atlas of gene 
expression in adult. We chose the adult, because 
embryonic expression time-series are already 
available to the community, and because 
expression in the embryo does not imply that this 
is the only important function of a gene.

With this resource, you can easily look up any 
gene of interest to you, and find out where it is 
most abundant in the fly, and how specifically it 
is enriched in that tissue. This should be a 
major timesaver when investigating a new gene, 
because functional genomics implies functional 
analysis- so this resource will tell you which 
tissue to focus on first. Conversely, if you are 
already interested in specific tissues, we have 
‘top 50’ lists of the genes most enriched in 
those tissues – a happy hunting ground for interesting projects.

Samples were run with 4 biological replicates on 
the Affymetrix Drosophila genome 2 chip, which 
has probe sets for over 18500 transcripts. It is 
thus relatively authoritative and 
comprehensive.  At present, the atlas covers 
brain, head (including brain – and yes, the two 
samples are different), midgut, Malpighian tubule 
and hindgut (including rectum). Samples for 
testes and ovary are underway: we are happy to 
entertain offers of quality mRNA samples from 
other defined adult tissues, or of high-level bioinformatics collaboration.

For scriptwriters, programmed 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.

We are presently preparing a MS for submission, 
and would welcome feedback or suggestions from 
users: please email me directly. Until this MS is 
published, please cite our previous paper (Wang 
et al. (2004). Function-informed transcriptome 
analysis of Drosophila renal tubule. - 
http://genomebiology.com/2004/5/9/R69) which 
illustrates this principle for the Malpighian tubules.

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) initiative. 
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 at bio.gla.ac.uk)
------------------------------------------------------------------
                    Prof. Julian A.T. Dow
              IBLS Division of Molecular Genetics,
           University of Glasgow, Glasgow G11 6NU, UK
Phone: +44 141 330 4616                      FAX: +44 141 330 4878
email: j.a.t.dow at bio.gla.ac.uk                 WWW: fly.to/tubules