Resource paper on the TRiP fly stocks now published at Genetics

Transgenic RNAi Project (TRiP) RNAi fly & data resource paper now online. Congrats Liz & whole team! #GeneticsGSA http://t.co/xaHapyQUgl

— Stephanie Mohr (@smohrfly) August 31, 2015

New resource--Enhancer trap flippase fly stocks

Smith BN, Ghazanfari AM, Bohm RA, Welch WP, Zhang B, Masly JP. A Flippase-Mediated GAL80/GAL4 Intersectional Resource for Dissecting Appendage Development in Drosophila. G3 (Bethesda). 2015 Aug 13. pii: g3.115.019810. PMID: 26276385.

From the abstract: "... A recently developed Flippase-induced intersectional GAL80/GAL4 repression method incorporates several gene manipulation technologies in Drosophila to enable such fine-scale dissection in neural tissues. ... Here, we expand the utility of a large collection of these enhancer-trap flippase transgenic insertion lines by characterizing their expression patterns in third larval instar imaginal discs. We screened 521 different enhancer-trap flippase lines and identified 28 that are expressed in imaginal tissues, including two transgenes that show sex-specific expression patterns. ... The results of our experiments show that these enhancer-trap flippase lines enable fine-scale manipulation in imaginal discs."

DRSC FlyRNAi website will be down briefly on Sat. Aug. 22

FYI, Due to a central IT upgrade, the DRSC FlyRNAi website will be down Saturday August, 22, from 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM Eastern US time.

CRISPR activation in vivo in Drosophila

Things are looking up: #CRISPR activation in vivo in #Drosophila. Early online in #Genetics. http://t.co/zojqKxmf2G

— Stephanie Mohr (@smohrfly) August 6, 2015

CRISPR, gene drives and safety

Two recent papers speak to CRISPR, gene drives and safety:



Akbari et al. 2015 Safeguarding gene drive experiments in the laboratory. in Early online in Policy Forum section of Science.  

 Abstract: "Multiple strategies are needed to ensure safe gene drive experiments."

Unckless et al. 2015 Modeling the Manipulation of Natural Populations by the Mutagenic Chain Reaction Early online at Genetics.

From the Discussion section:  "... there are conditions in which accidental introductions of a single individual can lead to fixation of the MCR allele ..."

Beyond fruit flies--iBeetle large-scale RNAi screen in Tribolium

Schmitt-Engel C, Schultheis D, Schwirz J, Ströhlein N, Troelenberg N, Majumdar U, Dao VA, Grossmann D, Richter T, Tech M, Dönitz J, Gerischer L, Theis M, Schild I, Trauner J, Koniszewski ND, Küster E, Kittelmann S, Hu Y, Lehmann S, Siemanowski J, Ulrich J, Panfilio KA, Schröder R, Morgenstern B, Stanke M, Buchhholz F, Frasch M, Roth S, Wimmer EA, Schoppmeier M, Klingler M, Bucher G. The iBeetle large-scale RNAi screen reveals gene functions for insect development and physiology. Nat Commun. 2015 Jul 28;6:7822. PMID: 26215380.

From the abstract: "Genetic screens are powerful tools to identify the genes required for a given biological process. .. for technical reasons, comprehensive screens have been restricted to very few model organisms. ... although deep sequencing is revealing the genes of ever more insect species, the functional studies predominantly focus on candidate genes previously identified in Drosophila, which is biasing research towards conserved gene functions. RNAi screens in other organisms promise to reduce this bias. Here we present the results of the iBeetle screen, a large-scale, unbiased RNAi screen in the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum ... This work transcends the restrictions of the candidate gene approach and opens fields of research not accessible in Drosophila."

Don't miss: "New fields of research" section of the article, which describes studies, such as of the 'odiferous stink glands,' that can be done in Tribolium but not Drosophila.

Glia-specific RNAi screen explores circadian behavior

Ng FS, Jackson FR. The ROP vesicle release factor is required in adult Drosophila glia for normal circadian behavior. Front Cell Neurosci. 2015 Jul 3;9:256. PMID: 26190976.