Single-nucleus transcriptomics of wing sexual dimorphism and scale cell specialization in sulphur butterflies
Fig 7
Diverging gene expression profiles of male scale cell precursors at 40% development.
A. UMAP plot representing the 8 sub-clusters of scale cell precursors across a total of 1,550 cells. B. Violin plots for scale markers (sv, peb, Osi24) and developmental factors showing differential expression patterns across scale subtype (see text) markers (all scales). C. Violin plot of Antp expression showing enrichment in Scale1d, and Antp immunofluorescence (Antp 4C3 antigen) localization to unpigmented wing coupling scales [81]. D. Violin plots for the unpigmented scales marker Bar-H1 [25], far-posterior region marker mirror [82], and proximal region marker homothorax [80]. E. Violin plots for Scale4 marker genes Cut, previously localized to large wing nuclei and wing margin [36,83], and apterous-A, a marker of dorsal-specific structures [79]. F. Immunofluorescent localization of the Cut 2B10 antigen (gray) shows bright marking of the wing margin, and nuclear signal interspersed in the wing epithelium and in tracheal lumen. G. Cut signal in tracheal lumen likely corresponds to chains of differentiating neurons. H–I′. Large nuclei with Cut signal likely correspond for dorsal wing hair, restricted to the proximal side of the discal crossvein (dotted line). J–J′. Expression of Cut in wing margin scales likely corresponds to the precursors of elongated margin scales. Cyan: staining of the basal wing membrane, here shown using the non-specific signal from animmunofluorescence assay using a guinea pig polyclonal anti-Dve antibody. K. Violin plot of nubbin expression. L. Antigenicity of Nubbin 2D4 revealing repression of Nubbin in dorsal scale cells (dcs) and lower signal in ventral scale cells (vcs). Scale bars: Scale bars: C, G, H, H′, I′, J′ = 100 μm; F = 1 mm; I, L = 20 μm. Feature count matrices and Seurat objects used for the generation of Fig 7A–7E, 7K are available at the Open Science Framework Repository [78].