The System

The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has been studied for almost a century. Fundamental principles regarding the nature of genes, chromosomes, evolution, behavior, and development have come directly from studies of this model organism. Modern molecular techniques wedded to powerful genetics are allowing us to probe the nature of genetic switches that control the flow of information from DNA to RNA, one of life's most fundamental processes.

Early embryogenesis in Drosophila is driven by cascades of transcriptional switches which are activated and deactivated in complex spatial and temporal patterns. The activity of one such switch protein, knirps, is demonstrated in the stained embryo at the right. A band of repression of the lacZ reporter gene is seen near the center of the embryo.

Many of our experiments involve testing the activity of novel genes or gene products in transgenic organisms. P-element mediated germline transformation, pioneered by Rubin and Spradling, allows us to easily create transgenic Drosophila