Hugo bellen’s lab generated Drosophila melanogaster bacterial artificial chromosome libraries with 21-kilobase and 83-kilobase inserts in the P[acman] system. P[acman] was developed by Koen Venken in Bellen’s laboratory,which allows scientists to study large chunks of DNA in living flies.Cloning huge fragments of DNA is not possible in classical P-elements and this has been over come in P[acman] that allows modification of cloned fragments by recombineering and germline transformation of genomic DNA fragments up to 133 kilobases.

Vienna Drosophila Research Center (VDRC) recently announced availability of a new large-scale collection of transgenic RNAi lines. These lines have been created using the phiC31 integrase system to target RNAi transgenes to a specific landing site on the second chromosome. This landing site (VIE-260b) was selected from an initial set of 59candidate landing sites, based on its low level of basal expression and consistent high level of GAL4-dependent expression across a range of different tissues. The RNAi transgenes consist of inverted repeats of typically 300-700bpthat were designed to reduce the …

Its no secret that GFP based time lapse live-imaging is a powerful technique for studying different dynamic processes like tissue morphogenesis ,cell death or cell adhesion. The important aspect which needs to be taken care for live cell imaging to minimize detrimental effects such as dehydration and hypoxia. Recently authors Bruce H. Reed, Stephanie C. McMillan, and Roopali Chaudhary reported a novel technique called hanging drop protocol. The main advantage using hanging drop protocol is that it results in excellent viability of embryos during live imaging and does not require …

Kelly J. Beumera et al reported an efficient way of mutagenesis for any target in Drosophila by direct embryo injection of mRNAs encoding specific zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs). To explore the consequences resulted from alterations in DNA forms the basis of genetic analysis and it can done in more than one way. In forward genetics, mutations responsible for particular phenotypes are traced back to their genomic location. In reverse genetics, a genomic target is identified and mutations are directed to it and this a remarkable technique in elucidating function of gene …

The most common reason for generating antibodies against a particular protein in Drosophila is to examine its pattern of endogenous expression during development. There are many methods that use the exquisite sensitivity of antibodies to locate a cellular component or a specific molecule (a tissue antigen). This process of localizing proteins in cells of a tissue section exploits the principle of antibodies binding specifically to antigens in biological tissues. The interaction between antibody – antigen can be visualised in different ways like an antibody is conjugated to an enzyme, such …

ImageJ is a public domain, Java-based image processing program developed at the National Institutes of Health. This extremely useful software was developed by Wayne Rasband (NIH) in 1997, is at the Research Services Branch of the National Institute of Mental Health.The near-comprehensive range of import filters that allow easy access to image and meta-data, a broad suite processing and analysis routine, and enthusiastic support from a friendly mailing list are invaluable for all microscopy labs and facilities-not just those on a budget. ImageJ’s plugin architecture and built in development environment …

Gateway technology is considered to be a wonder tool in molecular biology providing faster ,easier and accurate way of cloning your gene of interest in study. This efficient technology uses att recombination sites and clonase enzyme brings in the needed recombination. To perform a gateway cloning first step will be to get the gene of interest in Entry vector to make a entry clone and later can be easily transferred into destination vectors ( with tags ) by performing LR reactions catalysed clonase enzyme. ( For more details on Gateway …