Genetic Reagents for Making Split-GAL4 Lines in Drosophila

• Published in: Genetics (Austin) Vol. 209; no. 1; pp. 31 - 35
• Main Authors: Dionne, Heather, Hibbard, Karen L, Cavallaro, Amanda, Kao, Jui-Chun, Rubin, Gerald M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Genetics Society of America 01.05.2018
• Subjects: Animals; Biological activity; Cell Line; Crosses, Genetic; Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; Drosophila; Drosophila - genetics; Drosophila melanogaster; Drosophila Proteins - chemistry; Drosophila Proteins - genetics; Drosophila Proteins - metabolism; Enhancer Elements, Genetic; Enhancers; Gene Expression; Genetic engineering; Genetic Vectors - genetics; Genetics; Genotype; Insects; Investigations; Kinases; Methods; Nervous system; Neurons; Neurosciences; Promoter Regions, Genetic; Reagents; Transcription factors; Transcription Factors - chemistry; Transcription Factors - genetics; Transcription Factors - metabolism; Transgenes; United States > US; neuron; enhancer; cell type; genetic intersection; gene expression
• ISSN: 1943-2631; 0016-6731; 1943-2631
• DOI: 10.1534/genetics.118.300682

The ability to reproducibly target expression of transgenes to small, defined subsets of cells is a key experimental tool for understanding many biological processes. The nervous system contains thousands of distinct cell types and it has generally not been possible to limit expression to one or a few cell types when using a single segment of genomic DNA as an enhancer to drive expression. Intersectional methods, in which expression of the transgene only occurs where two different enhancers overlap in their expression patterns, can be used to achieve the desired specificity. This report describes a set of over 2800 transgenic lines for use with the split-GAL4 intersectional method.