Web-based histology reference atlas for the freshwater crustacean Daphnia magna

Mee S. Ngu, Daniel J. Vanselow, Carolyn R. Zaino, Alex Y. Lin, Jean E. Copper, Margaret J. Beaton, John K. Colbourne, Keith C. Cheng, Khai C. Ang

Research output: Working paper/PreprintPreprint

Abstract

Daphnia, an important model system for the study of evolution, development, phenotypic plasticity, and environmental health, lacks a modern reference atlas for microanatomy. To facilitate the comprehensive assessment of phenotypic effects of genes and environment, we created the Daphnia histology reference atlas (http://daphnia.io/anatomy/), a tractable, interactive web-based tool that provides insight into normal phenotype through vectorized annotations overlaid onto digital histology sections imaged at 40X magnification. Guided by our expert-curated and multimodal informed hierarchical anatomical ontology, we show that this resource can be used to elucidate sex-specific differences between female and male Daphnia magna in each of 3 orthogonal planes, providing new insight for the study of sex-specific traits. This atlas is a new, open-source resource for the Daphnia community to facilitate education and research collaboration, and as a precursor for the 3D atlas. It is also our intention that this atlas aids in phenotypic anchoring of large-scale biomolecular (multi-omics) data from comparative toxicological studies. Greater access to high-quality histological data may clarify cross-correlations between microanatomic and multi-omic phenotypes caused by genetic variation, environment, and disease across phylogeny.
Original languageEnglish
PublisherbioRxiv
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 12 Mar 2022

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