Sex-, stage-, and tissue-specific alternative splicing in Drosophila melanogaster

We used long-oligonucleotide microarrays to investigate whether alternative splicing in Drosophila is regulated in a sex-, stage-, or tissue-specific manner. To examine sex-specific splicing, we compared gene expression profiles of male and female pupae 12 hours after pupariation. To examine stage-specific splicing, we compared expression profiles of mixed-sex, 0-24 hour old embryos and mixed-sex, 12 hour old pupae. To examine tissue-specific splicing, we compared expression profiles of adult male heads and abdomens 24-48 hours after eclosion. To examine tissue-specific splicing, we compared expression profiles of adult male heads and abdomens at 24-48 hours after eclosion. Keywords: tissue-specific expression profiles Drosophila isogenic line WI89 was used. Mixed-sex, mixed-stage embryos were harvested from plates on which females had been allowed to oviposit for 24 hours. To obtain synchronized cohorts of pupae, male and female white prepupae were collected at 0-1 hour after pupariation and aged for 12 hours at 25C. Mixed-sex pupal samples were generated by mixing equal amount of male and female pupal RNA. Adult heads and abdomens were dissected from 24-48 hour old males. mRNA was isolated and labeled without amplification.