PreprintCited by 173Genomics and Chromatin DynamicsSingle-cell and spatial transcriptomicsGene Regulatory Network Analysis

Decoding gene regulation in the fly brain

Open access
Janssens, Jasper, Aibar, Sara, Taskiran, Ibrahim Ihsan, Ismail, Joy N., Spanier, Katina I., Bravo González-Blas, Carmen, Quan, Xiao Jiang, Papasokrati, Dafni +5 more·2021·Nature

Preprint — published as 10.1038/s41586-021-04262-z · Paper page

Abstract

Summary: The Drosophila brain is a work horse in neuroscience. Single-cell transcriptome analysis 1–5, 3D morphological classification 6 , and detailed EM mapping of the connectome 7–10 have revealed an immense diversity of neuronal and glial cell types that underlie the wide array of functional and behavioral traits in the fruit fly. The identities of these cell types are controlled by – still unknown – gene regulatory networks (GRNs), involving combinations of transcription factors that bind to genomic enhancers to regulate their target genes. To characterize the GRN for each cell type in the Drosophila brain, we profiled chromatin accessibility of 240,919 single cells spanning nine developmental timepoints, and integrated this data with single-cell transcriptomes. We identify more than 95,000 regulatory regions that are used in different neuronal cell types, of which around 70,000 are linked to specific developmental trajectories, involving neurogenesis, reprogramming and maturation. For 40 cell types, their uniquely accessible regions could be associated with their expressed transcription factors and downstream target genes, through a combination of motif discovery, network inference techniques, and deep learning. We illustrate how these “enhancer-GRNs” can be used to reveal enhancer architectures leading to a better understanding of neuronal regulatory diversity. Finally, our atlas of regulatory elements can be used to design genetic driver lines for specific cell types at specific timepoints, facilitating the characterization of brain cell types and the manipulation of brain function.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1101/2021.08.11.454937

Cites

140 of 140 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Methods for inferring enhancer-driven GRNs that integrate enhancer sequence, chromatin accessibility and gene expression found that accuracy to predict active enhancers increases by approximately 10% compared to using accessibility alone.

    “methods for inferring enhancer-driven GRNs (eGRNs) that integrate enhancer sequence, chromatin accessibility and gene expression22–24 found that the accuracy to predict active enhancers increases by ~10% compared to using accessibility alone25.”

    From Enhancer grammar of liver cell types and hepatocyte zonation states (2022) · cites this paper as [25]

    Extended Data Fig. 10 (p. 27) identifies accessibility and correlation with nearby gene expression as key features for predicting GFP activity. The paper also describes using enhancer sequence in its eGRN analysis, but the passages in our copy do not establish an approximately 10% accuracy gain over accessibility alone. (LLM, conf=0.82)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

3 of the 143 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 4

  1. (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. The copyright holder for this preprintthis version posted August 12, 2021. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.11.454937doi: bioRxiv preprint https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.11.454937 · DOI
  2. (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. The copyright holder for this preprintthis version posted August 12, 2021. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.11.454937doi: bioRxiv preprint https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.11.454937 · DOI
  3. (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. The copyright holder for this preprintthis version posted August 12, 2021. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.11.454937doi: bioRxiv preprint https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.11.454937 · DOI
  4. Expression Data Using Tree-Based Methods. PLOS ONE 5, e12776 (2010).

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Janssens, J., Aibar, S., Taskiran, I. I., Ismail, J. N., Spanier, K. I., Bravo González-Blas, C., Quan, X. J., Papasokrati, D., Hulselmans, G., Makhzami, S., Waegeneer, M. D., Christiaens, V., & Aerts, S.
Affiliations
VIB-KU Leuven Center for Brain & Disease Research (BE)
Corresponding author
Aerts, Stein
Venue
Nature
Publisher
openRxiv
Published
2021-08-12
Volume
601
Issue
7894
Pages
630-636
ISSN
0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W4205345182
Cited by
170
References
143
Citations by year
2026: 22 · 2025: 36 · 2024: 35 · 2023: 40 · 2022: 35 · 2021: 1 · 2013: 1
FWCI
12.15
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature (publishedVersion)
  • bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
  • Lirias (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Funders
  • Wellcome Trust (207467/Z/17/Z)
  • Medical Research Council (MR/L018802/1, MR/L018802/2)
  • Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/W001004/1)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Genomics and Chromatin Dynamics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Single-cell and spatial transcriptomics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gene Regulatory Network Analysis
Keywords
Drosophila brain, gene regulatory networks, enhancers, chromatin accessibility, single-cell transcriptomics, transcription factors, transcription factor binding sites, neuronal cell types, neurogenesis, developmental trajectories
MeSH terms
Animals, Brain, Drosophila, Gene Expression Regulation, Transcription Factors, Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental, Gene Regulatory Networks

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review