Immunofluorescence staining: & Confocal imaging

Techniques we routinely use to visualize various molecules simultaneously in Drosophila tissues. For a finer resolution, we also clear thick tissues like the fly CNS via a DPX based clearing method.

This VNC tissue was stained with antibodies against Lamin (green), a nuclear membrane protein, marks nucleus of every fly cell and Elav (magenta), an RNA binding protein, marks all neurons. Cells lacking Elav are glia. Note the difference between neuronal and glial nuclear membrane.

Fly Genetics

With the current tools available to fly researchers, we can target any gene in any cell type at any time.

Read more about …

• Flybase, Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center
• Drosohila as a model system- Hales et al., E. Bier, The Berg Lab, G. Manning, Kim et al.,
• Drosophila genetics- Online training package, Fly pushing,
• Modeling human diseases-Berrak et al., Reiter et al.,
• GAL4&UAS system- Wikipedia, Brand&Perrimon, Pfeiffer et al., Luan et al.,
• Lineage & clonal studies-Valle Rodríguez  et al., T. Lee, Richier,
• Reporter immortalization- Awasaki et al., Lacin et al., Ren et al.,
• Other tools- Venken, Kanca et al., Griffin et al.,

Example: Stem-cell intersected reporter immortalization. This technique employs multiple recombinases and transcriptional activators.

Decapitated flies expressing channelrhodopsin channels in distinct neuronal lineages. Light induced activation in one lineage leads to jump behavior (left) and in another lineage it leads to movements of specific leg segments (right).