A Drosophila melanogaster genome-wide transcriptome dataset is
available for studies on temporal patterns of gene expression. Gene
expression was measured using two-dye color oligonucleotide arrays
derived from Version 2 of the Drosophila Genomics Resource Center.
A total of 15,158 oligonucleotide probes corresponded to a high
proportion of the coding genes in the genome. The source of the flies
was a highly genetically heterogeneous population maintained in an
overlapping generation population regime. This regime was
designed to maintain life history traits so that they were similar to
those found in natural populations. Flies collected for the cohorts
were obtained in a short period of time in a carefully controlled
manner before virgin females and males were allowed to mate.
Mated females were introduced into two large population cages in
unusually high numbers (approximately 12,000 per cage) for a
Drosophila laboratory longevity study. Samples were taken weekly
from each cohort for 11 weeks; only a small proportion of surviving
flies were present at the last two collection time points and thus
they were exceptionally old compared to those collected in early-tomidlife
samples. The data set is useful for studies of temporal patterns
of gene expression as flies age. The very large size of each
cohort, and relatively frequent incidence of temporal samples, allows
for a fine-scale study of gene expression from young to very old flies
