High-resolution gene expression data from blastoderm embryos of the scuttle fly Megaselia abdita

Abstract

Gap genes are involved in segment determination during early development in dipteran insects (flies, midges, and mosquitoes). We carried out a systematic quantitative comparative analysis of the gap gene network across different dipteran species. Our work provides mechanistic insights into the evolution of this pattern-forming network. As a central component of our project, we created a high-resolution quantitative spatio-temporal data set of gap and maternal co-ordinate gene expression in the blastoderm embryo of the non-drosophilid scuttle fly, Megaselia abdita. Our data include expression patterns in both wild-type and RNAi-treated embryos. The data-covering 10 genes, 10 time points, and over 1,000 individual embryos-consist of original embryo images, quantified expression profiles, extracted positions of expression boundaries, and integrated expression patterns, plus metadata and intermediate processing steps. These data provide a valuable resource for researchers interested in the comparative study of gene regulatory networks and pattern formation, an essential step towards a more quantitative and mechanistic understanding of developmental evolution.

This work was funded by the MEC-EMBL agreement for the EMBL/CRG Research Unit in Systems Biology, by European Commission grant FP7-KBBE-2011-5/289434 (BioPreDyn), by Grant 153 (MOPDEV) of the ERANet: ComplexityNET programme, by AGAUR SGR Grant 406, as well as grants BFU2009-10184 and BFU2012-33775 from the Spanish Ministry of the Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO, formerly MICINN). The Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) acknowledges support from MINECO, 'Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa 2013-2017', SEV-2012-0208.