Usage Guide


intro

BDGP in situ Gene Expression Query Help

(1) Terms for queries:

      - gene identifier
      - body part or combinations of body parts
      - developmental stage-range
      - cytological position
      - GO function assignments
      - protein domains

(2) Use Advanced Search

Each query term mentioned above has its own help page from the Advanced Search page (click '?' along the term to get it).

The search results are arranged in such a way that each gene has one row and their background color alternates to give visual clues of one gene row since one gene row may contain sub rows (each stage has one row).

The results of searches can be formatted (affected by Format value) to return combination of

      - gene information
           - gene symbol/predicted gene (click for expression data report with images and/or array profile)
           - representative EST
           - cytological position
           - GO function (where available)
      - array profile (click to enlarge for details)
      - images (click to enlarge for details)
      - annotation - stage and body parts (click on body part to go to ImaGO report page)

Things to keep in mind when looking at the Advanced search results:

   - The body parts that were subject of the search are in bold and italics.
   - The return of searches is ordered so that genes with expression data which match the search criteria best are on top of the list, whereas genes without expression profile are on the bottom.
   - Array profile is available for vast majority of the genes.
   - Genes with Note : Not worth revisiting have textual annotation only, no images captured (maternal, ubiquitous, no staining and combinations of those)
   - Only images for a stage matching the search criteria are displayed, click on gene name for full report with ALL INAGES captured for that gene.

(3) Expression Pattern Report Pages contain:

      - Gene information (cDNA, Gene, Function, Domain)
           - click on EST link for 5' and 3' sequences from BDGP
                - occasionally multiple ESTs represent the same gene and two distinct sets of image and annotation data may be available to document the expression pattern,
           - predicted gene or gene name link leads to gadfly annotation report
           - FBgn link leads to FlyBase gene report

      - Array profile ( expression value are calculated using dCHip analysis algorithm, absent/present calls are imported from Affymetrix Microarray Suite analysis)

      - Expression pattern
           - images are grouped by stage-ranges
           - images are clickable for enlarged version that opens in a new window
           - bodypart links lead to ImaGO Report page
           - Note column contains textual annotation (maternal, no staining, ubiquitous) generally only when no images are available.
           - Comment column has free text comments of the annotator.

(4) Summary Page

Summary page tabulates all gene expression data in the database. Link in Gene column goes to gene expression report page.
Text Version of Summary link on the summary page give you a plain text same as the summary page but fields are tab-delimited.

(5) ImaGO Gene Ontology Browser

Help on ImaGO is available here ImaGO Docs

Notes

   - The permutations of paths to the root term in anatomy ontologies in ImaGO report page are at present unavoidable, please scroll down for the list of genes at the bottom of the page.
   - Major utility of ImaGO is that it will list all genes that we found expressed in a given embryonic structure and in all structures that derive from it.
   - P stands for part of, I stands for instance of, D stands for develops from relationship between ontology terms

For further help, you can email insitu@fruitfly.org