Category Archives: Fly – Insects

PhD position in Drosophila neurobiology @ Manchester UK

By | January 8, 2022

A PhD position is available to study bundles of microtubules (MT) that run all along axons in Drosophila brain. The decay of MT bundle decay causes axon degeneration and mechanism underlying this phenomenon forms the basis of this project. More details and link to apply: How to apply: https://www.bmh.manchester.ac.uk/study/research/bbsrc-dtp/apply Application deadline: 21 January 2022 Interviews: week commencing… Read More »

Site directed Transgenic Drosophila

By | July 8, 2021

Transgenesis in Fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster has come a long way from the days of landmark discovery of Spradling and Rubin in 1982. Drosophila research is highly dependent on P element-mediated transgenesis, as majority of its genetic tools depends on germline transformation by P- element transformation vector – like UAS-GAL4 system, UAS RNAi, FRT FLP… Read More »

How to know chromosomal location of a transgenic construct by using a genetic cross ?

By | July 1, 2021

When we generate a new transgene, the first thing which needs to be done is to map its chromosomal location. This can be done at molecular level by performing Inverse Polymerase chain Reaction (iPCR) and subsequent sequencing. It is also possible to efficiently map the P-element insertion (transgene) by doing a simple cross genetic crosses… Read More »

Nobel Prizes for studying Drosophila

By | June 21, 2021

The contribution of Drosophila melanogaster as a invertebrate model in understanding basic aspects of biology is immense. This eventually led to many landmark findings, enabling us to unravel many biological puzzles and find cure for many human diseases. Thanks to the continuous efforts of many scientists and their co-workers, has helped in widening the scope… Read More »

How to balance and generate new fly stocks for genetic crosses

By | June 19, 2021

Drosophila melanogaster was introduced as a model organism more than a century ago. However it was the pioneering work of Thomas Hunt Morgan and his graduate students Sturtevant and Bridges have revolutionized the field of Drosophila genetics and laid the foundation for the present day Invertebrate powerhouse for studying development, physiology and behavior. Since more… Read More »

How to make a recombinant fly line

By | June 14, 2021

Ease of doing genetic experiments makes Drosophila an excellent model system to study development and disease. The reasons for ease in setting up genetic crosses and its subsequent interpretation of results can be attributed to many efficient genetic tools, balancer chromosomes, innumerable genetic markers with clear visible phenotype, mutants for many genes and less number… Read More »

Gal4-UAS system and effect of temperature

By | June 6, 2021

GAL4- UAS system is definitely one of the widely used genetic tool for targeted gene expression in Drosophila. It can be used for both gain of function and loss of function genetic experiments. The wide applicability and everyday use of the system can be attributed to its simple design and availability of lots of reagents… Read More »

Drosophila Research Technician position

By | May 28, 2021

The Johnston Lab at Columbia University Medical Center in New York has an opening for a Research Technician. The candidate will be the primary technical support staff person for the lab, and have the opportunity for full participation in research.  Duties will include Drosophila genetics and dissection of larval, pupal and adult tissues; molecular biology… Read More »

CRISPR in Drosophila: A tool for targeted disruption of genes

By | May 22, 2021

The best way to study the function of a gene is by generating a mutation or knockdown/knockout so that the amount of protein coded by that gene is compromised. Several model systems are employed by scientists to study the function of human genes. Drosophila has been used as a genetic model for more than 100… Read More »

Nomenclature of Hox genes

By | May 6, 2021

Lots of confusion prevailed in nomenclature Hox genes , even the name Hox was confusing. A hox gene originally referred to any gene coding for a protein with Homeodomain. In the beginning very few genes where known which could be clearly identified with homeotic mutants of Drosophila. Later huge number of genes with Homeodomain were… Read More »