Colleen M Palmateer

Area of research

Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience · Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

Research interest

Research topics from publications: Single-cell transcriptome profiles of Drosophila fruitless-expressing neurons from both sexes; Investigation of Drosophila fruitless neurons that express Dpr/DIP cell adhesion molecules; Analysis of cell-type-specific chromatin modifications and gene expression in Drosophila neurons that direct reproductive behavior; Neurogenetic and genomic approaches reveal roles for Dpr/DIP cell adhesion molecules in Drosophila reproductive behavior; Author response: Investigation of Drosophila fruitless neurons that express Dpr/DIP cell adhesion molecules; Single-cell transcriptome profiles of Drosophila fruitless -expressing neurons from both sexes. Representative work: Drosophila melanogaster reproductive behaviors are orchestrated by fruitless neurons. We performed single-cell RNA-sequencing on pupal neurons that produce sex-specifically spliced fru transcripts, the fru P1-expressing neurons. Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection (UMAP) with clustering generates an atlas containing 113 clusters. While the male and female neurons overlap in UMAP space, more than half the clusters have sex differences in neuron number, and nearly all clusters display sex-differential expression. Based on an examination of enriched marker genes, we annotate clusters as circadian clock neurons, mushroom body Kenyon cell neurons, neurotransmitter- and/or neuropeptide-p Drosophila reproductive behaviors are directed by fruitless neurons. A reanalysis of genomic studies shows that genes encoding dpr and DIP immunoglobulin superfamily (IgSF) members are expressed in fru P1 neurons. We find that each fru P1 and dpr/DIP ( fru P1 ∩ dpr/DIP ) overlapping expression pattern is similar in both sexes, but there are dimorphisms in neuronal morphology and cell number. Behavioral studies of fru P1 ∩ dpr/DIP perturbation genotypes indicate that the mushroom body functions together with the lateral protocerebral complex to direct courtship behavior. A single-cell RNA-seq analysis of fru P1 neurons shows that many DIPs have high expression in a small set of neurons, where

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