Domain specific genetic mosaic system in the Drosophila eye

Abstract

Genetic mosaic approach is commonly used in the Drosophila eye by completely abolishing or misexpressing a gene within a subset of cells to unravel its role during development. Classical genetic mosaic approach involves random clone generation in all developing fields. Consequently, a large sample size needs to be screened to generate and analyze clones in specific domains of the developing eye. To address domain specific functions of genes during axial patterning, we have developed a system for generating mosaic clones by combining Gal4/UAS and flippase (FLP)/FRT system which will allow generation of loss-of-function as well as gain-of-function clones on the dorsal and ventral eye margins. We used the bifid-Gal4 driver to drive expression of UAS-FLP. This reagent can have multiple applications in (i) studying spatio-temporal function of a gene during dorso-ventral (DV) axis specification in the eye, (ii) analyzing genetic epistasis of genes involved in DV patterning, and (iii) conducting genome wide screens in a domain specific manner.