DOI: 10.5061/dryad.fttdz0933
title: Data from: Development and patterning of a highly versatile visual system in spiders

description: Visual systems provide a key interface between organisms and their
 surroundings, and have evolved in many forms to perform diverse functions
 across the animal kingdom. Spiders exhibit a range of visual abilities and
 ecologies, the diversity of which is underpinned by a highly versatile,
 modular visual system architecture. This typically includes eight eyes of
 two developmentally distinct types, but the number, size, location, and
 function of the eyes can vary dramatically between lineages. Previous
 studies of visual system development in spiders have confirmed that many
 components of the retinal determination gene (RDG) network are conserved
 with other arthropods, but so far, comparative studies among spiders are
 lacking. We characterised visual system development in seven species of
 spiders representing a range of morphologies, visual ecologies, and
 phylogenetic positions, to determine how these diverse configurations are
 formed, and how they might evolve. Combining synchrotron radiation
 tomography, transcriptomics, in situ hybridisation, and selection
 analyses, we characterise the repertoires and expression of key RDGs in
 relation to adult morphology. We identify key molecular players,
 timepoints, and developmental events that may contribute to adult
 diversity, in particular the molecular and developmental underpinnings of
 eye size, number, position, and identity across spiders
description: Embryos were preserved in 70% ethanol and mounted in pipette tips
 for scanning at the TOMCAT beamline, Swiss Light Source (Paul Scherrer
 Institute) (Stampanoni et al. 2006). Scans used a monochromatic beam (16
 keV), with propagation distances 10-100 mm and combined magnifications of
 4x (effective voxel size 1.65 μm, LuAG:Ce 100 μm scintillator), 10x (0.65
 μm, LuAG:Ce 20 μm), or 20x (0.325 μm, LuAG:Ce 20 μm). 2000 projections
 were recorded across 180° sample rotation, with exposure times of 70 ms
 (4x), 120 ms (10x), or 200 ms (20x). In-house software reconstructed
 slices from projections, with Paganin filtering (delta=1e-7, beta=3e-9)
 (Paganin et al. 2002) and depth reduction to 8-bit tiffs (Marone and
 Stampanoni 2012). Data were cropped in Fiji (Schindelin et al. 2012) and
 models were produced in Amira v.2021 (Thermo Fisher), using volume
 rendering (outer surfaces) and manual segmentation (CNS).
description: # Synchrotron scans of developing spider embryos
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.fttdz0933](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.fttdz0933) ## Description of the data and file structure Morphological and transcriptomic data for a study of visual system development in spiders. ### Files and variables #### File: Marpissa\_13\_20x.zip **Description:** Synchrotron scan of a stage 13 (after Mittmann and Wolff 2007) Marpissa muscosa embryo. Generated at the TOMCAT beamline of the Swiss Light Source (Paul Scherrer Institute), using 20x magnification. Reconstructed model of CNS in Amira (Thermo Fisher). #### File: Pholcus\_13.2-14\_20x\_4.zip **Description:** Synchrotron scan of a stage 13.2 (after Mittmann and Wolff 2007) Pholcus phalangioides embryo. Generated at the TOMCAT beamline of the Swiss Light Source (Paul Scherrer Institute), using 20x magnification. Reconstructed model of CNS in Amira (Thermo Fisher). #### File: Parasteatoda\_14\_2B.zip **Description:** Synchrotron scan of a stage 14 (after Mittmann and Wolff 2007) Parasteatoda tepidariorum embryo. Generated at the TOMCAT beamline of the Swiss Light Source (Paul Scherrer Institute), using 10x magnification. Reconstructed model of CNS in Amira (Thermo Fisher). #### File: Drassodes\_sp\_embryos\_Trinity.fasta **Description:** Assembled transcriptome of mixed-stage embryos of Drassodes cupreus. Assembled using the Trinity pipeline with default settings. For full methods, see Baudouin-Gonzalez et al. 2024. #### File: Segestria\_sp\_embryos\_Trinity.fasta **Description:** Assembled transcriptome of mixed-stage embryos of Segestria senoculata. Assembled using the Trinity pipeline with default settings. For full methods, see Baudouin-Gonzalez et al. 2024. #### File: Zygiella\_Xnotata\_Trinity.fasta **Description:** Assembled transcriptome of mixed-stage embryos of Zygiella x-notata. Assembled using the Trinity pipeline with default settings. For full methods, see Baudouin-Gonzalez et al. 2024. #### File: Pardosa\_13.1-13.2\_2.zip **Description:** Synchrotron scan of a stage 13.1-13.2 (after Mittmann and Wolff 2007) Pardosa amentata embryo. Generated at the TOMCAT beamline of the Swiss Light Source (Paul Scherrer Institute), using 10x magnification. Reconstructed model of CNS in Amira (Thermo Fisher). #### File: Zygiella\_14\_20x\_5.zip **Description:** Synchrotron scan of a stage 14 (after Mittmann and Wolff 2007) Zygiella x-notata embryo. Generated at the TOMCAT beamline of the Swiss Light Source (Paul Scherrer Institute), using 20x magnification. Reconstructed model of CNS in Amira (Thermo Fisher). ## Code/software Synchrotron scans contain slices (tiff stacks) and Amira files (.hx network files, and .surf surfaces) for the reconstructed models. Transcriptomes in fasta format. ## Access information Other publicly accessible locations of the data: * Transcriptome reads are available on NCBI (BioProject PRJNA707377). Data was derived from the following sources: * NA