Transcriptional profiling of aged Drosophila photoreceptors

Purpose: The goal of this study was to globally characterize the transcript levels of genes in Drosophila photoreceptor neurons during aging. Using transcriptome profiling of isolated photoreceptor nuclei we analyzed the changes in gene expression that occur during aging over 5 time-points from 10 to 40 days post-eclosion and identified sets of genes with both up-regulated and down-regulated expression. Overall design: Method: RNA extracted from photoreceptor nuclei of flies aged from 10 to 40 days was used to generate cDNA libraries using NuGen Ovation Drosophila RNA seq system. Samples were sequenced using Illumina HiSeq2500 next generation sequencer (five different age time points and three biological replicates per time point).