Transcriptome analysis of Drosophila melanogaster intestines upon knockdown of Tachykinin (Tk), the GPCR GulpR (CG32547), and bruchpilot (brp)

Tk is a peptide hormone mainly expressed in the Drosophila brain and intestine. Gut-derived Tk is known to impact intestinal lipid metabolism and immunity. We used RNA-seq to determine the impact of Tk and the Tk regulators GulpR and brp on intestinal gene expression and further understand their role in metabolism and immunity. We compare the intestinal transcriptome of Tk knockdown, GulpR knockdown, and brp knockdown flies to control driver flies. Overall design: Tk> (Tk-Gal4) flies were crossed to TRiP control, Tk RNAi, GulpR RNAi, or brp RNAi flies. Progeny was collected and raised at 26°C for 4-7 days. Female intestines were dissected and processed for RNA isolation. RNA sequencing was performed on these samples and the data were analyzed according to 3 different comparisons: 1. Tk>TRiP and Tk>Tk RNAi flies, 2. Tk>TRiP and Tk>GulpR RNAi flies, and 3. Tk>TRiP and Tk>brp RNAi flies.