Transcriptomic analysis of Drosophila larval and adult blood cells

Drosophila adult blood cells originate from larval peripheral hemocytes (derived from the embryonic waves of hematopoiesis) and from larval lymph gland hemocytes. To gain insight into the expression repertoire of Drosophila blood cells, we established the gene expression profiles the adult blood cells and their ascendants. We used Drosophila melanogaster w1118 females to retrieve total blood cell populations. Adult blood cells were collected by bleeding 5-day old flies; 3rd instar larval hemocytes were retrieved by bleeding (for embryo-derived hemocytes) or by dissecting the anterior lobes of the lymph glands.Total RNAs were extracted for analysis by deep sequencing, in triplicate, using Illumina NextSeq sequencing platform.