Transcriptional changes associated with endoplasmic reticulum stress in the eye imaginal disc of Drosophila melanogaster

We obtained transcriptional profiles of third instar eye imaginal disc nuclei with or without endoplasmic reticulum stress using next generation sequencing (NGS). We employed an isolation of nuclei tagged in specific cell type (INTACT) protocol (Ma and Weake, J. of Vis. Exp., 2014) to label nuclear membranes of GMR-GAL4-expressing cells with EGFP. The experimental group also expressed a mutant allele of the membrane visual protein rhodopsin (Rh-1(G69D)), which is known to cause endoplasmic reticulum stress and initiate Unfolded Protein Response (UPR) signaling. The goal of this study was to characterize the transcriptional changes associated with endoplasmic reticulum stress responses in a commonly used platform, the eye imaginal disc. Overall design: Comparison of isolated nuclear transcriptomes from third instar control eye imaginal discs and third instar eye imaginal discs overexpressing the misfolded protein Rh-1(G69D), a potent inducer of endoplasmic stress