Transcriptome of whole antennae of control and programmed cell death (PCD)-blocked Drosophila.. Transcriptome of whole antennae of control and programmed cell death (PCD)-blocked Drosophila.

Here, we tested the possibility that Drosophila peripheral olfactory system cells fated to die might represent a reservoir of potential neurons. Inhibition of PCD is sufficient to generate many new cells in the antenna that express neural markers. Transcriptomic and in situ analyses reveal that these “undead” neurons express a subset of olfactory receptor genes, including some normally only expressed in other sensory organs. Overall design: Two groups of flies: control (peb-Gal4/+;Or49a-GFP/+) and PCD-blocked (peb-Gal4/+;Or49a-GFP/UAS-p35) with three biological replicates per group; each replicate consisting of antennae from approximately 350 animals; paired design.

本研究验证了如下假说：注定发生程序性死亡的果蝇外周嗅觉系统细胞，可作为潜在神经元的储备库。抑制程序性细胞死亡（Programmed Cell Death, PCD）足以在触角中诱导产生大量表达神经标志物的新生细胞。转录组学与原位分析结果显示，这些"不死"神经元会表达一组嗅觉受体基因子集，其中包含部分通常仅在其他感觉器官中表达的基因。实验总体设计如下：设置两组果蝇，分别为对照组（peb-Gal4/+;Or49a-GFP/+）与程序性细胞死亡阻断组（peb-Gal4/+;Or49a-GFP/UAS-p35）；每组设置3次生物学重复，每一次重复的样本取自约350只果蝇的触角；实验采用配对设计。