Single cell transcriptional profile of third instar larval wing discs in Drosophila

Our study focuses on understanding the early transcriptional changes taking place during the divergence of the adult muscle precursors that give rise to indirect flight muscles and direct flight muscles in Drosophila. We analyzed the heterogenous cell population of the adult muscle precursors by scRNA-seq and build an integrated single-cell reference atlas. We addressed the differences among muscle-type and different cell state during myoblast differentiation. Also, our dataset includes the transcriptional profile of the epithelial cells localized in the presumptive hinge and notum of third instar larval wing discs. In addition we studied the functional relevance of Amalgam in flight muscle development by depleting Ama expression specifically in the adult muscle precursors. We determined the transcriptional changes and perturbations in AMP cell identity upon Ama knockdown.

我们的研究聚焦于解析果蝇（Drosophila）中成体肌肉前体细胞（adult muscle precursors, AMP）分化为间接飞行肌与直接飞行肌的早期转录组变化。我们通过单细胞RNA测序（single-cell RNA sequencing, scRNA-seq）对该类前体细胞的异质性细胞群进行了分析，并构建了整合型单细胞参考图谱。我们解析了成肌细胞分化过程中不同肌肉类型与细胞状态间的差异。此外，本数据集还涵盖了三龄幼虫翅盘预定铰链区与背板区域上皮细胞的转录组特征。同时，我们通过特异性敲低成体肌肉前体细胞中的Ama基因表达，探究了Amalgam (Ama)在飞行肌发育中的功能相关性，并明确了Ama基因敲低后，成体肌肉前体细胞的细胞身份所发生的转录组变化与异常扰动。