Cell-type specific transcriptomic profiling to dissect mechanisms of differential dendritogenesis

The establishment, maintenance and modulation of cell-type specific neural architectures is critically important to the formation of functional neural networks. At the neuroanatomical level, differential patterns of dendritic arborization directly impact neural function and connectivity, however the molecular mechanisms underlying the specification of distinct dendrite morphologies remains incompletely understood. To address this question, we analyzed global gene expression from purified populations of wild-type class I and class IV Drosophila melanogaster dendritic arborization (da) sensory neurons compared to wild-type whole larval RNA using oligo DNA microarray expression profiling. Herein we present detailed experimental methods and bioinformatic analyses to correspond with our data reported in the Gene Expression Omnibus under accession number GSE46154. We further provide R code to facilitate data accession, perform quality controls, and conduct bioinformatic analyses relevant to this dataset. Our cell-type specific gene expression datasets provide a valuable resource for guiding further investigations designed to explore the molecular mechanisms underlying differential patterns of neuronal patterning.