FlyAtlas: a comprehensive online atlas of gene expression in Drosophila

多细胞生物，从人类到苍蝇再到植物，都有专门用于不同任务的不同组织。是什么让一种组织不同于另一种组织？身体中的每个细胞都包含相同的遗传密码（15000-25000个基因，取决于生物体）;但不同的组织会开启（表达）这些基因的不同子集。例如，皮肤是皮肤，因为它表达角蛋白，肝脏是肝脏，因为它表达解毒酶。因此，要了解生物体是如何工作的，我们需要知道哪些基因在哪些组织中表达。有许多技术用于绘制基因表达水平，但大多数都很费力且容易出错。相比之下，DNA微阵列允许在单一实验中相对精确地测量基因组中所有基因的表达水平。因此，一个全面的、基于微阵列的生物体特定组织和细胞类型的基因表达“图谱”对整个社区来说是一个非常有用的资源;如果这项工作做得好，就没有必要再做一次。这项建议是为了扩大这种服务的果蝇（果蝇）研究界，无论是在英国和世界各地。一个试点项目（有9个成人组织）在头6个月吸引了2 000多名用户，证实了对这种资源的需求。我们建议将资源扩展到更远的组织和更远的生命阶段，数据可以在网络上轻松访问（flyatlas.org）。该资源将使科学家能够更精确地定位他们的工作，节省金钱和时间，并减少不必要的动物使用。

Multicellular organisms, from humans to flies to plants, have distinct tissues specialized for distinct tasks. What makes one tissue different from another? Every cell in the body contains the same genetic code (of 15000-25000 genes, depending on the organism); but different tissues switch on (express) different subsets of these genes. For example, skin is skin because it expresses keratin, and liver is liver because it expresses detoxifying enzymes. To understand how organisms work, therefore, we need to know which genes are expressed in which tissues. There are many techniques for mapping gene expression levels, but most are laborious and prone to error. By contrast, DNA microarrays allow the relatively precise measurement of expression levels of all genes in a genome in a SINGLE experiment. A comprehensive, microarray-based 'atlas' of gene expression in specific tissues and cell types thoughout an organism is thus a fantastically useful resource to a whole community; if the job is done properly, there is no need to do it again. This proposal is to extend such a service for the Drosophila (fruit fly) research community, both in the UK and worldwide. A pilot project (with 9 adult tissues) has attracted over two thousand users in its first 6 months, confirming the need for such a resource. We propose to extend the resource to further tissues and further life stages, with the data easily accessible on the web (at flyatlas.org). The resource will allow scientists to target their effort more precisely, saving money and time, and reducing unnecessary animal use.