Transcriptomic analysis of tudor[1] mutant Drosophila brain and ovaries

In Drosophila, Tudor protein and its germline partners, Piwi proteins, are expressed in the brain. However, the potential significance of Tudor in neurobiology has not been explored. Here, we test a hypothesis that Tudor is an essential regulator of post-transcriptional gene expression in the brain where it controls levels of certain RNAs required for brain functions. Specifically, transcriptome of tudor mutant brains is compared with that of wild-type brains using next-generation sequencing (RNA-Seq). The hypothesis that Tudor regulates the same genes in both brain and germline is tested by comparing the transcriptomes from tudor mutant brains and ovaries. This research aims at providing innovative outcomes which may reveal exciting commonalities between the germline and brain and may contribute to our understanding of neurodegenerative disorders and the mechanisms of learning and memory. Overall design: A total of twelve brain samples (3 biological replicates for Tudor (tud) mutant and 3 biological replicates for wild-type control, isolated separately from males and females) and 6 ovarian samples (3 biological replicates for tud mutant and 3 biological replicates for wild-type control) were sequenced for gene expression. Strand-specific libraries for high throughput RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) were prepared without poly(A) selection.