Gene expression responses to radiation treatment in Bradysia coprophila.

There are research studies, although sparse, that span back nearly a century, which suggest that dark-winged fungus gnats (Bradysia coprophila; Order: Diptera; sub-order: Nematocera) may have higher resistance to irradiation-induced mutations that cause visible phenotypes than fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster; Order: Diptera; sub-order: Brachycera). As part of following up on these studies, we collected RNA-seq data to identify genes involved in the early transcriptional response to irradiation. We are currently providing RNA-seq data from irradiated and control larvae that correspond to our recent preprint (Urban, Bateman, et al, 2021; https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.28.466123v1). In this study, nearly 600 female 4th instar pre-eyespot larvae from several matings were randomly and uniformly distributed into three three replicates to eliminate the possibility of batch effects from different bottles. Each of the three replicate groups was then randomly and uniformly distributed into treatment (irradiation) and control (no irradiation) sub-groups. Irradiation treatment was 80 Gy for ~50 minutes. Treatment and control groups of larvae were all snap frozen ~45 minutes after irradiating the treatment groups. RNA-seq libraries were prepared as described previously (Urban et al. 2021), and were sequenced to yield 100 bp paired-end reads (Illumina HiSeq 2000). These datasets will be useful to others who wish to further elucidate how fungus gnats cope with radiation-induced damage.