Name: application of multicolor flpout technique to study high resolution single cell morphologies and cell interactions of glia in drosophila
Uploaded: 2017-10-20T14:00:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Application of MultiColor FlpOut Technique to Study High Resolution Single Cell Morphologies and Cell Interactions of Glia in Drosophila at JoVE.com

The authors thank Arnim Jenett, Aljoscha Nern, and other members of the Rubin laboratory for advice and sharing of unpublished reagents and the Janelia Fly Light Project Team for generating confocal images. The authors also thank the members of the Gaul laboratory for comments on the manuscript.

1. Preparing Flies for MultiColor FlpOut (MCFO) Experiments
NOTE: The MCFO technique refers to a modified version of the so called Flp-mediated stop cassette excision (FlpOut). Transgenic MCFO flies carry a heat shock promoter (hsp)-Flp recombinase and different reporters under UAS control. Each reporter consists of a common backbone of a myristoylated (myr) super folder green fluorescent protein (sfGFP), in which 10 copies of an epitope tag (e.g., HA, FLAG or V5) have been inserted. Th...

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This protocol describes an easy and efficient method to study the morphology of different cell types within a tissue of interest at high resolution. With the MCFO technique, multiple reporters with different epitope tags are used in combination for multicolor stochastic labeling (Figure 2). Similar to other methods such as Brainbow/Flybow15,16,17, MCFO increases the label diversity through marker co...

Glia, the non-neuronal cell population of the nervous system (NS), were long believed to provide a static framework for neurons and therefore were not studied in detail. However, in humans, glia constitute the vast majority of cells in the NS (~90%) and fall into several different categories, including astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, microglia and Schwann cells. In Drosophila, glia constitute about 10% of the cells in the NS. Intriguingly, their morphologies and functions are remarkably similar to those found in vertebrates1,2. Their morphologies include blood-brain barrier (BBB) forming epithelia, ensheathing, and astrocyte-like cells.
The Drosophila central nervous system (CNS) consists of the following principal structures: cortex regions that contain the neuronal cell bodies; neuropils that harbor synaptic connections; small and large axon tracts that connect the different neuropiles; peripheral nerves that connect sensory organs and muscles with the CNS (Figure 1). Glia are found associated with all these anatomical structures: Cortex glia (CG) in the cortical regions, astrocyte-like glia (ALG) and ensheathing glia (EG) in the neuropile regions, ensheathing glia are also associated with central axon tracts and peripheral nerves (EGN), and finally, two sheet-like glia, perineurial glia (PG) and subperineurial (SPG), which together form a contiguous layer that covers the entire NS (Figure 2).
Previous studies have shown that glia play important roles in the development of the NS; they monitor neuronal cell numbers by reacting to systemically circulating insulin-like peptides, provide trophic support to neurons, such as the astrocyte-neuron lactate shuttle, and eliminate dying neurons by phagocytosis3,4,5,6. In the mature NS, glia maintain the BBB, take up neurotransmitters and maintain ionic homeostasis, act as the major immune cells in the NS, since macrophages cannot breach the BBB, and modulate synaptic activity as well as animal behavior6,7,8,9,10,11.
Whether the different glial subtypes perform specialized functions remains an important open question. However, a systematic genome-wide analysis of glia, especially in the adult, has been hampered by a lack of appropriate genetic tools for their manipulation. Here, a method that allows the efficient and easy characterization of cell shapes to study complex cell-cell interactions is presented. This technique has been applied to characterize the morphology of the different glial subtypes in the adult Drosophila brain, but, depending on the specific GAL4 driver used, it could be adapted to study neurons12,13, any kind of intermingling cells, and in principle any tissue in any developmental stages.

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>Water bath</td>
			<td>Grant</td>
			<td>GD100</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>PCR tubes</td>
			<td>Sarstedt</td>
			<td>72.737.002</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Forceps</td>
			<td>Dumont</td>
			<td>11251-20</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Dissecting dish 30 mm x 12 mmm</td>
			<td>Electron Microscopy Sciences</td>
			<td>70543-30</td>
			<td>Glass dissection dish</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Pyrex 3 Depression Glass Spot Plate</td>
			<td>Corning</td>
			<td>7223-34</td>
			<td>Glass dissection plates</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Sylgard Black</td>
			<td>SYLGARD, Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>805998</td>
			<td>home made with charcoal</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>ExpressFive S2 cell culture medium</td>
			<td>Invitrogen</td>
			<td>10486-025</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>20% PFA</td>
			<td>Electron Microscopy Sciences</td>
			<td>15713</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Triton X-100</td>
			<td>Roth</td>
			<td>3051.3</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Normal goat serum</td>
			<td>Jackson Laboratories</td>
			<td>005-000-121</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Normal donkey serum</td>
			<td>Jackson Laboratories</td>
			<td>017-000-121</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Bovine Serum Albumin</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>A9647</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Rabbit HA-tag</td>
			<td>Cell Signaling</td>
			<td>C29F4</td>
			<td>Primary antibody, dilution 1:500</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Rat FLAG-tag</td>
			<td>Novus Biologicals</td>
			<td>NBP1-06712</td>
			<td>Primary antibody, dilution 1:100</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Mouse V5-tag:DyLight 549</td>
			<td>AdSerotec</td>
			<td>0411</td>
			<td>Conjugated antibody, dilution 1:200</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>anti-rabbit AlexaFluor 488</td>
			<td>Invitrogen</td>
			<td>A11034</td>
			<td>Secondary antibody, dilution 1:250</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>anti-rat DyLight 647</td>
			<td>Jackson Laboratories</td>
			<td>712-605-153</td>
			<td>Secondary antibody, dilution 1:100</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Vecta Shield</td>
			<td>Vector Laboratories</td>
			<td>H-1000</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>SlowFate Gold</td>
			<td>Invitrogen</td>
			<td>S36937</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Secure Seal Spacer</td>
			<td>Grace Biolabs</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Contact company for ordering</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Microscope cover glass 22 X 60 mm</td>
			<td>Marienfeld</td>
			<td>101152</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Microscope cover glass 22 x 22 mm</td>
			<td>Roth</td>
			<td>H874</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Stereo Microscope, Leica MZ6</td>
			<td>Leica</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Confocal laser scanning microscope LSM710</td>
			<td>Zeiss</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Immersol</td>
			<td>Zeiss</td>
			<td>518 F</td>
			<td>Immersion oil for fluorescence-microscopy, halogen free</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Immersol</td>
			<td>Zeiss</td>
			<td>W 2010</td>
			<td>Immersion fluid for water-immersion objectives, halogen free</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>R56F03-GAL4 (EG)</td>
			<td>Bloomington Stock Center</td>
			<td>39157</td>
			<td>GAL4 driver</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>R86E01-GAL4 (ALG)</td>
			<td>Bloomington Stock Center</td>
			<td>45914</td>
			<td>GAL4 driver</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>hspFlpPestOpt; UAS-FRT-stop-FRT-myr-smGFP-HA, UAS-FRT-stop-FRT-myr-smGFP-FLAG, UAS-FRT-stop-FRT-myr-smGFP-V5</td>
			<td>Bloomington Stock Center</td>
			<td>64085</td>
			<td>UAS reporter (https://bdscweb.webtest.iu.edu/stock/misc/mcfo.php)</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Fiji (Image J)</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Image analysis software</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Multi Time Macro</td>
			<td>Zeiss</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Software for automated scanning</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

application of multicolor flpout technique to study high resolution single cell morphologies and cell interactions of glia in drosophila

Cells display different morphologies and complex anatomical relationships. How do cells interact with their neighbors? Do the interactions differ between cell types or even within a given type? What kinds of spatial rules do they follow? The answers to such fundamental questions in vivo have been hampered so far by a lack of tools for high resolution single cell labeling. Here, a detailed protocol to target single cells with a MultiColor FlpOut (MCFO) technique is provided. This method relies on three differently tagged reporters (HA, FLAG and V5) under UAS control that are kept silent by a transcriptional terminator flanked by two FRT sites (FRT-stop-FRT). A heat shock pulse induces the expression of a heat shock-induced Flp recombinase, which randomly removes the FRT-stop-FRT cassettes in individual cells: expression occurs only in cells that also express a GAL4 driver. This leads to an array of differently colored cells of a given cell type that allows the visualization of individual cell morphologies at high resolution. As an example, the MCFO technique can be combined with specific glial GAL4 drivers to visualize the morphologies of the different glial subtypes in the adult Drosophila brain.

This section illustrates examples of results that can be obtained by using the MCFO technique in the adult Drosophila brain. Figure 3 shows a schematic of the method. Three differently membrane-tagged reporters (myr-smGFP-HA, myr-smGFP-FLAG and myr-smGFP-V5) under UAS control are kept silent by a transcriptional terminator flanked by two FRT sites (FRT-stop-FRT). A heat shock pulse induces the expression of Flp recombinase which rand...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Application of MultiColor FlpOut Technique to Study High Resolution Single Cell Morphologies and Cell Interactions of Glia in Drosophila at JoVE.com

Application of MultiColor FlpOut Technique to Study High Resolution Single Cell Morphologies and Cell Interactions of Glia in Drosophila

Cells display different morphologies and establish a variety of interactions with their neighbors. This protocol describes how to reveal the morphology of single cells and to investigate cell-cell interaction by using the well-established Gal4/UAS expression system.

Application of MultiColor FlpOut Technique to Study High Resolution Single Cell Morphologies and Cell Interactions of Glia in Drosophila

Cells display different morphologies and complex anatomical relationships. How do cells interact with their neighbors? Do the interactions differ between ...

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