Fly Genetics

We have been involved in generating a number of large scale genetics resources for the Fly community. We played a major role in the EU-funded DrosDel consortium to construct a second generation deletion kit for the fly genome. Using a series of FRT sites randomly inserted in the fly genome, we provide a toolkit for generating targeted genome rearangements that are mapped with base-pair precision. Se the DrosDel website for further details. (Ryder et al. 2004, Ryder et al. 2007). The project was driven by the combined efforts of several European labs and in Cambridge was led by Ed Ryder (molecular biology and computation) and John Roote (genetics).

More recently, in collaboration with Daniel St Johnston (Gurdon Institute) and Kathryn Lilley (Cambridge Centre for Proteomics) we generated a set of in vivo protein trap lines via a transposon trapping screen. The novel lines were screened by a team of UK research groups and their tissue-specific expression as well as sub-cellular protein localisations annotated. The proteomics team carried out affinity purifications to determine the protein complexes that the tagged lines are part of. Details are available from the FlyProt web site. As part of this project, we developed an open source annotation tool, Flannotator, which is available for those who need to curate and annotate large numbers of images. (Ryder et al. 2009)

Current Lab Members
Glynnis Johnson

Collaborators
John Roote (Lord of the Flies)
Daniel St Johnston
Kathryn Lilley