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Quantitative Assessment of Eye Phenotypes for Functional Genetic Studies Using Drosophila melanogaster

Iyer, J; Wang, Q; Le, T; Pizzo, L; Grönke, S; Ambegaokar, S; Imai, Y; ... Girirajan, S; + view all (2016) Quantitative Assessment of Eye Phenotypes for Functional Genetic Studies Using Drosophila melanogaster. G3 (Bethesda) , 6 (5) pp. 1427-1437. 10.1534/g3.116.027060. Green open access

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Abstract

About two-thirds of the vital genes in the Drosophila genome are involved in eye development, making the fly eye an excellent genetic system to study cellular function and development, neurodevelopment/degeneration, and complex diseases such as cancer and diabetes. We developed a novel computational method, implemented as Flynotyper software (http://flynotyper.sourceforge.net), to quantitatively assess the morphological defects in the Drosophila eye resulting from genetic alterations affecting basic cellular and developmental processes. Flynotyper utilizes a series of image processing operations to automatically detect the fly eye and the individual ommatidium, and calculates a phenotypic score as a measure of the disorderliness of ommatidial arrangement in the fly eye. As a proof of principle, we tested our method by analyzing the defects due to eye-specific knockdown of Drosophila orthologs of 12 neurodevelopmental genes to accurately document differential sensitivities of these genes to dosage alteration. We also evaluated eye images from six independent studies assessing the effect of overexpression of repeats, candidates from peptide library screens, and modifiers of neurotoxicity and developmental processes on eye morphology, and show strong concordance with the original assessment. We further demonstrate the utility of this method by analyzing 16 modifiers of sine oculis obtained from two genome-wide deficiency screens of Drosophila and accurately quantifying the effect of its enhancers and suppressors during eye development. Our method will complement existing assays for eye phenotypes and increase the accuracy of studies that use fly eyes for functional evaluation of genes and genetic interactions.

Type: Article
Title: Quantitative Assessment of Eye Phenotypes for Functional Genetic Studies Using Drosophila melanogaster
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1534/g3.116.027060
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1534/g3.116.027060
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © The Authors 2016. This is an Open Access article published under a Creative Commons licence.
Keywords: Drosophila melanogaster, modifier screens, neurodevelopmental disorders, ommatidia, rough eye
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology > Neurodegenerative Diseases
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences > Genetics, Evolution and Environment
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1477726
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