Genome-wide S2 cell screen looking at centrosome-independent mitotic spindle assembly

Moutinho-Pereira S, Stuurman N, Afonso O, Hornsveld M, Aguiar P, Goshima G, Vale RD, Maiato H. Genes involved in centrosome-independent mitotic spindle assembly in Drosophila S2 cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Nov 19. PMID: 24255106.

From the abstract: "Animal mitotic spindle assembly relies on centrosome-dependent and centrosome-independent mechanisms, but their relative contributions remain unknown. Here, we investigated the molecular basis of the centrosome-independent spindle assembly pathway by performing a whole-genome RNAi screen in Drosophila S2 cells lacking functional centrosomes. This screen identified 197 genes involved in acentrosomal spindle assembly, eight of which had no previously described mitotic phenotypes and produced defective and/or short spindles. ... Overall, these findings establish the constitutive nature of a centrosome-independent spindle assembly program and how this program is adapted to the presence/absence of centrosomes in animal somatic cells."

Argonaut-mediated miRNA biogenesis. Recent report.

Yang JS, Smibert P, Westholm JO, Jee D, Maurin T, Lai EC. Intertwined pathways for Argonaute-mediated microRNA biogenesis in Drosophila. Nucleic Acids Res. 2013 Nov 12. PMID: 24220090.

Drosophila CRISPR approaches--Cas9 in the germline

These two papers, one of which is co-authored by folks here at the DRSC, describe using germline expression of Cas9 for CRISPR genome engineering approaches.

Sebo ZL, Lee HB, Peng Y, Guo Y. A simplified and efficient germline-specific CRISPR/Cas9 system for Drosophila genomic engineering. Fly (Austin). 2013 Oct 18;8(1). PMID: 24141137.

Ren X, Sun J, Housden BE, Hu Y, Roesel C, Lin S, Liu LP, Yang Z, Mao D, Sun L, Wu Q, Ji JY, Xi J, Mohr SE, Xu J, Perrimon N, Ni JQ. Optimized gene editing technology for Drosophila melanogaster using germ line-specific Cas9. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Nov 4. PMID: 24191015. Note: This paper includes a description of our searchable online resource of pre-computed CRISPR sgRNA designs.

Book in Methods in Molecular Biology series includes fly PIWI study methods

A current book in the Methods in Molecular Biology Series, PIWI-Interacting RNAs, includes protocols for Drosophila RNA-related research.

New fly TALEN paper.

Kondo T, Sakuma T, Wada H, Akimoto-Kato A, Yamamoto T, Hayashi S. TALEN-induced gene knock out in Drosophila. Dev Growth Differ. 2013 Oct 31. PMID: 24172335.

Interested to try TALENs?  The DRSC is offering custom TALEN constructs.