Technical Note--Making New Cell Lines

Reading today? 

Reports from A. Simcox and colleagues that describe a method for jump-starting the process of making fly cell lines:

Efficient Genetic Method for Establishing Drosophila Cell Lines Unlocks the Potential to Create Lines of Specific Genotypes (Open Access from PLoS Genetics; Figure 6 of the paper is shown here.)

Drosophila embryonic ‘fibroblasts’: Extending mutant analysis in vitro (Fly 2008, 15(2)6; PubMed ID 19077546).

The work could prove important for future screens, as it opens up new possibilities.

The authors suggest that using the approach they describe, cell lines could readily be made from a strain carrying a (non cell-lethal) marker or mutation of interest. Notably, the cells they generated and tested were transfectable and susceptible to RNAi.