Single-cell profiling of the developing embryonic heart in Drosophila

Abstract

Drosophila is an important model to study heart development and disease. Yet, single-cell transcriptomic data of its developing heart had not been performed. Here, we report single-cell profiling of the entire fly heart using ∼3,000 Hand-GFP embryos collected at five consecutive developmental stages, ranging from bilateral migrating rows of cardiac progenitors to a fused heart tube. The data revealed six distinct cardiac cell types in the embryonic fly heart: cardioblasts (CB), both Svp+ and Tin+ subtypes; and five types of pericardial cells (PC), that can be distinguished by four key transcription factors (Eve, Odd, Ct, and Tin) and include the newly described end of the line PC (ELPC). Notably, the embryonic fly heart combines transcriptional signatures of the mammalian first and second heart fields. Using unique markers for each heart cell type, we defined their number and location during heart development to build a comprehensive 3D cell map. These data provide a resource to track the expression of any gene in the developing fly heart, which can serve as a reference to study genetic perturbations and cardiac diseases.

APOL1-G2 accelerates nephrocyte cell death by inhibiting the autophagy pathway

“…Flies were crossed, reared and kept on standard food (Meidi LLC) at 25°C. The following Drosophila strains used in this study had been previously generated by us (Z.H.’s lab): Hand -GFP (expressing green fluorescent protein in the nuclei of nephrocytes and cardiomyocytes; Han and Olson, 2005 ; Huang et al, 2023 ), and Mhc -ANF-RFP (expressing ANF red fluorescent protein in muscle myosin heavy chain promoter-driven atrial natriuretic peptide-red fluorescent protein in muscle cells; Zhang et al, 2013 ). The following lines were obtained from the Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center (BDSC; Indiana University, IN): Dot -Gal4 (ID 6903; Ugt36A1 driver), tub -Gal4 (ID 30029; alphaTub84B driver), UAS-YFP- Rab5 (ID 24616), UAS-YFP- Rab7 (ID 23270), UAS-YFP- Rab11 (ID 9790), and UAS-mCherry- Atg8a (ID 37750).…”

Distinct Roles for COMPASS Core Subunits Set1, Trx, and Trr in the Epigenetic Regulation of Drosophila Heart Development

“…In Drosophila, these are Set1/COMPASS, Trithorax COMPASS-like, and Trithorax-related COMPASS-like (Figure 1A). To gain knowledge about the role of these COMPASS complexes, we first looked at the expression levels of the genes encoding these core H3K4 methyltransferases in cardiac progenitor cells from our single-cell RNAseq data [26]. Cells were collected during critical developmental stages of Drosophila heart development; from the migration of bilateral rows of cardiac progenitors (stage 13 onward) to the formation of a closed heart tube (stage 16).…”

“…Data Availability Statement: All source data have been deposited in NCBI's Gene Expression Omnibus and are accessible through GEO accession numbers: GSE240313 (this study), GSE173835 (control used for RNA-seq data analysis) [64], and GSE168774 (scRNA-seq of the developing fly heart) [26]. Other data and materials that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.…”