Abstract

The gastrointestinal tract in the adult Drosophila serves as a model system for exploring the mechanisms underlying digestion, absorption and excretion, stem cell plasticity, and inter-organ communication, particularly through the gut–brain axis. It is also useful for studying the cellular and adaptive responses to dietary changes, alterations in microbiota and immunity, and systematic and endocrine signals. Despite the various cell types and distinct regions in the gastrointestinal tract, few tools are available to target and manipulate the activity of each cell type and region, and their gene expression. Here, we report 353 GAL4 lines and several split-GAL4 lines that are expressed in enteric neurons (ENs), progenitors (ISCs and EBs), enterocytes (ECs), enteroendocrine cells (EEs), or/and other cell types that are yet to be identified in distinct regions of the gut. We had initially collected approximately 600 GAL4 lines that may be expressed in the gut based on RNA sequencing data, and then crossed them to UAS-GFP to perform immunohistochemistry to identify those that are expressed selectively in the gut. The cell types and regional expression patterns that are associated with the entire set of GAL4 drivers and split-GAL4 combinations are annotated online at http://kdrc.kr/index.php (K-Gut Project). This GAL4 resource can be used to target specific populations of distinct cell types in the fly gut, and therefore, should permit a more precise investigation of gut cells that regulate important biological processes.

摘要

成人果蝇的胃肠道可作为模型系统探索消化，吸收和排泄，干细胞可塑性和器官间交流的机制，尤其是通过肠脑轴。它对于研究细胞对饮食变化，微生物群和免疫力变化以及系统性和内分泌信号的适应性反应也很有用。尽管胃肠道中存在多种细胞类型和不同区域，但很少有工具可用于靶向和操纵每种细胞类型和区域的活性及其基因表达。在这里，我们报告了353个GAL4系和几个split-GAL4系，它们在肠神经元（EN），祖细胞（ISC和EB），肠上皮细胞（EC），肠内分泌细胞（EEs）或/和其他尚未表达的细胞类型中表达在肠道的不同区域进行识别。UAS-GFP进行免疫组化以鉴定在肠中选择性表达的那些。与整套GAL4驱动程序和split-GAL4组合相关的细胞类型和区域表达模式可在http://kdrc.kr/index.php（K-Gut项目）上在线注释。该GAL4资源可用于靶向蝇肠中不同细胞类型的特定种群，因此，应允许更精确地研究调节重要生物过程的肠细胞。