Sex and line specific gene expression and alternative splicing in Drosophila revealed

Many multi-exon genes are subject to alternative splicing, which is thought to increase phenotypic complexity by allowing a single locus to produce multiple functionally distinct proteins. However, genetic and developmental variation in alternative splicing has never been examined systematically. We therefore undertook a genome-wide analysis of sex- and genotypic-specific splicing in Drosophila in conjunction with sex- and line-specific transcription. Keywords: microarray, sexual dimorphism, alternative splicing, genetical genomics, genetic variation Experiments were conducted on flies from two standard strains of D. melanogaster: Oregon R [79] and 2b3 [80], and six randomly chosen recombinant inbred (RI) lines derived from these parental lines [81]. Each of the 8 lines was grown in four separate replicates of small mass-matings containing on average 20 adults, with a sex ratio of 1. We analyzed four independent biological replicates for each line and sex combination with a Cy3/Cy5 dye swap on the sexes.

多外显子基因（multi-exon gene）普遍存在可变剪接（alternative splicing）现象，学界普遍认为该过程可通过单个基因座（locus）编码多种功能迥异的蛋白质，进而提升表型复杂度（phenotypic complexity）。然而此前尚未有研究对可变剪接的遗传与发育变异开展系统性分析。因此本研究针对果蝇（Drosophila）开展了全基因组水平的性别与基因型特异性剪接分析，并同步开展了性别与品系特异性转录组分析。
关键词：微阵列（microarray）、性别二态性（sexual dimorphism）、可变剪接、遗传基因组学（genetical genomics）、遗传变异
本实验所用实验材料为两种标准黑腹果蝇（Drosophila melanogaster）品系：Oregon R [79]与2b3 [80]，以及由这两个亲本品系衍生的6个随机选取的重组近交系（recombinant inbred line, RI）[81]。该8个品系均通过小型群养交配方式培养，每个品系设置4个独立生物学重复，每个重复的种群平均包含20只成虫，且雌雄性别比例为1:1。针对每个品系与性别的组合，我们均开展了4个独立生物学重复分析，并针对雌雄样本实施Cy3/Cy5荧光染料互换标记。