BrainTrap is a database of 3D protein expression patterns in the Drosophila brain, providing interactive visualization and exploration of confocal datasets showing reporter gene expression and protein localization.
BrainTrap was developed as part of a large-scale collaborative research project to collect protein expression location information from protein-trap lines generated by the Cambridge Protein Trap (CPT) project. The database provides detailed 3D confocal datasets showing protein expression patterns throughout the adult Drosophila brain.
- Interactive web-based viewer for exploring 3D confocal datasets
- Full-size images throughout the brain volume can be viewed interactively
- Secondary immunohistochemical label (anti-brp) aids navigation and helps identify brain structures
- Searchable annotations linked to the FlyBase Drosophila anatomy ontology
- Anatomical search criteria can be specified using:
- Automatic term completion
- Hierarchical browser for the ontology
- Annotation provenance tracking with highlighted expression locations
- Downloadable confocal dataset files in original format
- XML format annotation data export
- Gene comparison tables for selected genes
Knowles-Barley S, Longair M and Armstrong JD (2010). BrainTrap: a database of 3D protein expression patterns in the Drosophila brain. Database, Vol. 2010, Article ID baq005, doi:10.1093/database/baq005 (https://doi.org/10.1093/database/baq005)
Original development was funded by:
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
- Medical Research Council
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)
- British Society for Developmental Biology
- Society for Experimental Biology
- Virtual Fly Brain e-Science Institute (ESI) Theme
The fly lines were generated by the Cambridge Protein Trap Project, supported by a Wellcome Trust grant to Kathryn Lilley, Steve Russell and Daniel St. Johnson.
This resource is currently archived and maintained by Virtual Fly Brain (VFB).
Current website: https://braintrap.virtualflybrain.org/
Source code repository: https://github.com/VirtualFlyBrain/BrainTrap
School of Informatics
The University of Edinburgh
Edinburgh, EH8 9AB, UK
If you use BrainTrap in your research, please cite:
Knowles-Barley S, Longair M and Armstrong JD (2010). BrainTrap: a database of 3D protein expression patterns in the Drosophila brain. Database, Vol. 2010, Article ID baq005, doi:10.1093/database/baq005 (https://doi.org/10.1093/database/baq005)