Single cell transcriptional profile of third instar larval wing discs in Drosophila using drop-seq (single cell RNA-seq)

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. Overall design: Drop-seq on the single cell suspension from third instar larval wing discs (hinge and notum, pouch was manually removed during dissection). A total of eight wild type samples were processed, including two wild types lines. In addition three replicates were included to study muscle-specific depletion of Amalgam Single cell RNA-seq was performed using Drop-seq platform