DROSOPHILA INFORMATION NEWSLETTER Volume 12, October 1993 The Drosophila Information Newsletter has been established with the hope of providing a timely forum for informal communication among Drosophila workers. The Newsletter will be published quarterly and distributed electronically, free of charge. We will try to strike a balance between maximizing the useful information included and keeping the format short; priority will be given to genetic and technical information. Brevity is essential. If a more lengthy communication is felt to be of value, the material should be summarized and an address made available for interested individuals to request more information. Submitted material will be edited for brevity and arranged into each issue. Research reports, lengthy items that cannot be effectively summarized, and material that requires illustration for clarity should be sent directly to Jim Thompson (THOMPSON@AARDVARK.UCS.UOKNOR.EDU) for publication in DIS. Materials appearing in the Newsletter will be reprinted in DIS. Back issues of DIN are available from FlyBase in the directory flybase/news or in News/ when accessing FlyBase with Gopher. Material appearing in the Newsletter may be cited unless specifically noted otherwise. Material for publication should be submitted by e-mail. Figures and photographs cannot be accepted at present. Send technical notes to Carl Thummel and all other material to Kathy Matthews. The e-mail format does not allow special characters to be included in the text. Both superscripts and subscripts have been enclosed in square brackets; the difference should be obvious by context. Bold face, italics, underlining, etc. cannot be retained. Please keep this in mind when preparing submissions. To maintain the original format when printing DIN, use Courier 10cpi font on a standard 8.5" x 11" page with 1" margins. Drosophila Information Newsletter is a trial effort that will only succeed if a broad segment of the community participates. If you have information that would be useful to your colleagues, please take the time to pass it along. The editors: Carl Thummel Kathy Matthews Dept. of Human Genetics Dept. of Biology Eccles Institute - Bldg. 533 Indiana University University of Utah Bloomington, IN 47405 Salt Lake City, UT 84112 812-855-5782; FAX/2577 801-581-2937; FAX/5374 MATTHEWK@INDIANA.EDU CTHUMMEL@HMBGMAIL.MED.UTAH.EDU MATTHEWK@INDIANA.BITNET *** To add your name to the Newsletter distribution list, send one of the following E-mail messages from the account at which you wish to receive DIN. Via Bitnet -- To: LISTSERV@IUBVM Subject: Message: SUB DIS-L Your real name Via Internet -- To: LISTSERV@IUBVM.UCS.INDIANA.EDU Subject: Message: SUB DIS-L Your real name LISTSERV will extract your user name and node from the E- mail header and add you to the list. Use your Internet address if you have one. You will receive confirmation by E-mail if you have successfully signed on to the list. If you are on the list and do not wish to receive DIN, or you want to remove a soon-to-be- defunct address, replace SUB in the above message with UNS. The SUB command can also be used to correct spelling errors in your real name; the new entry will simply replace the old as long as it was sent from the same USERID@NODE address. *** DIN Vol. 12 TABLE OF CONTENTS >Introduction to Drosophila Information Newsletter >How to subscribe to the Newsletter >TABLE OF CONTENTS >ANNOUNCEMENTS >Sandler Lecture - Call for nominations >Faculty position available >Research assistant position available >Bloomington Stock Center news >REQUESTS FOR MATERIALS >Ovarian cDNA library and mutants >Mutations at 68EF >MATERIALS AVAILABLE >Genetics and Biology of Drosophila vols 3a,b,d,e >TECHNICAL NOTES >Needle sharpening for embryo injections *** ANNOUNCEMENTS CALL FOR NOMINATIONS - LARRY SANDLER MEMORIAL LECTURE We invite the nomination of candidates to present the seventh Larry Sandler Memorial Lecture at the 1994 Drosophila Conference. The Sandler Lecture is given on the first night of the conference; the 1994 conference will be held at the Sheraton- Chicago Hotel from April 20-24. Any student completing a Ph.D. in an area of Drosophila research in calendar year 1993 is eligible and may be nominated by his/her thesis advisor. Past recipients of this honor are: Dr. Bruce Edgar (1988), Dr. Kate Harding (1989), Dr. Michael Dickinson (1990), Dr. Maurice Kernan (1991), Dr. Doug Kellogg (1992), Dr. David Schneider (1993). The Sandler Lecturer will be chosen by a committee composed of Andrew Clark, Ian Duncan, Ruth Lehmann, Don Ready, Barbara Wakimoto and Mariana Wolfner. Nominations should include a curriculum vita, a thesis abstract of one or two pages, and a letter of nomination from the advisor. Nominations should be sent by December 14, 1993 to: Mariana Wolfner, Section of Genetics and Development, Cornell University, 423 Biotechnology Bldg., Ithaca NY 14853-2703. Telephone: (607) 254-4801, FAX: (607) 255-2428. *** CORNELL UNIVERSITY - SECTION OF GENETICS AND DEVELOPMENT Our Section is seeking an ASSISTANT PROFESSOR for a tenure track position, available in the Fall of 1994. The successful candidate will be expected to establish a vigorous externally funded research program in an important area of modern Genetics. The primary teaching responsibility will be to design and offer a lecture course in genetic analysis, with emphasis on eukaryotes, for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students. We strongly encourage applications from women and members of underrepresented minority groups. Applications should include a curriculum vitae, reprints of recent publications and a brief statement of present and future research interests. Complete applications and three letters of recommendation, solicited by the applicant, should be mailed to: G & D Search Committee, 101 Biotechnology Building, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-2703. Applications will be reviewed beginning November 15, 1993. Cornell University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer. *** RESEARCH ASSISTANT POSITION AVAILABLE Will assist in genetic analysis of Drosophila mutants displaying behavioral, developmental, and neurological phenotypes. Duties will include: maintaining and selecting Drosophila mutant stocks; performing genetic crosses; isolating new mutants and establishing stocks. Long term employment position; candidates with lab experience in genetics will be given preference. Please send cv to S. Benzer, Division of Biology 156-29, Caltech, Pasadena, CA 91125. *** BLOOMINGTON STOCK CENTER NEWS * The Bloomington Stock Center will be closed December 20 - 31, 1993. Large orders received after noon EST on the 9th of December will not be shipped until the new year due to the high rate of loss we experience during the Christmas mail crunch. Smaller orders (our call) received by noon EST on the 16th will be shipped on the 20th, but we recommend that you avoid ordering stocks during this period. * A new set of ry[+]-marked P insertions from the Drosophila Genome Center are now available from the Bloomington Stock Center. Most of these stocks carry lethal inserts on 3; the rest are male sterile inserts on 2 or 3. All carry the PZ construct. A list of insertion sites has been posted on bionet.drosophila and the relevant stock lists on FlyBase (p-list.txt, p-list.rpt, p- by-location.txt and p-by-location.rpt2) have been updated to include these stocks. * Our P stock stockkeeper, Starr Eck, is recovering from surgery and is expected to be away for another 3 to 5 weeks. Requests for more than 50 P stocks at a time will not be filled until Starr returns to work. If you are interested in receiving the whole Genome Center set as soon as possible ask to be added to the waiting list. * The set of unlocalized mini-w[+]-marked P inserts from Dan Lindsley will soon be discarded. If you want any of these stocks order them now. * There is mounting evidence that stocks carrying both hsFLP and FRTs are unstable. We will soon discard the hsFLP + FRT stocks from the Xu and Rubin set (Development 117:1223). If you aren't among the 5,007 people that have already received these stocks and would like to receive them despite the potential for problems, order them now. FRT-only and hsFLP-only stocks will continue to be maintained at the center. *** REQUESTS FOR MATERIALS OVARIAN cDNA LIBRARIES Kathleen A. Fitzpatrick, IMBB, Simon Fraser U., Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6. (604) 291-5931, KATHLEEF@SFU.CA We need a good ovarian cDNA library as well as alleles of known tyrosine kinase loci, such as sevenless, hopscotch, breathless, and any others for which there is a scorable phenotype. We have some genes that interact with torpedo and want to determine whether they will interact with other tyrosine kinase genes or only with top. Thanks for any help you can give us. *** MUTATIONS AT 68EF Helen Benes, Dept. of Biochemistry/Molecular Biology, Slot 516, U. of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, 4301 W. Markham St., Little Rock, AR 72205. FAX 501-686-5782, HXBENES@LIFE.UAMS.EDU We would appreciate any information on D. melanogaster stocks with enhancer trap insertions or lethals that map to, or reasonably near to, the 68E/F region. The lethals could be isolates of screens following mutagenesis by EMS, DEB, X-ray, P elements, etc. Thank you. *** MATERIALS AVAILABLE GENETICS AND BIOLOGY OF DROSOPHILA vols 3a,b,d,e J.S. Heilig, MCD Biology, U. of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0347. HEILIG@HORTON.COLORADO.EDU I have one copy each of volume 3a,b,d,e of Genetics and Biology of Drosophila and am happy to sell them (at cost) to someone whose interest in, and use for, them exceeds mine. They all are new copies, I have them from an attempt to get available volumes of the series from distributors in the U.K. since only photocopies are available in the U.S. The only other volumes available are 2 a and d. Volume 3a cost me $167.65, vols. b,d and e cost $155.70 each. If you are interested in these books please contact me soon. I will return them to London by the end of October. *** TECHNICAL NOTES NEEDLE SHARPENING FOR EMBRYO INJECTIONS James A. Powers, HHMI, Dept. of Biology, Indiana U., Bloomington, IN 47405. 812-855-7674, FAX/2577, JPOWERS@BIO.INDIANA.EDU For me, doing injections isn't so bad once I have a good needle. However, breaking needles to get a usable tip was often very frustrating. I have adapted a technique for sharpening needles for mouse embryo injections (Gundersen et al. (1993) Biotechniques, 14(3), 412-414) for use in Drosophila. The needles are ground in a slurry of "sand" to give a beveled tip that is sharp and has a large enough bore to resist clogging. A) Preparation 1) Wash silicon carbide (Grit 120 from Buehler Ltd., Lake Bluff, Illinois. They have a $50 minimum order so you get 5 lbs. which should last a very long time.) in several changes of MQ water until water remains clear with no fines floating on the surface. 2) Mix washed sand and MQ water (1:3). 3) Autoclave. 4) Store at 4C. B) Method 1) Backfill needle 2) Place needle in microinjection holder. 3) Apply pressure with syringe to avoid backflow of the slurry solution into your needle. I use a 60ml syringe placed in a standard caulking gun. 4) Swirl slurry at medium to high speed by stirring with a stir bar at about "7"(out of 10) on a stir plate. 5) Hold needle steady in slurry at an angle for about 1 min. 45 sec. Adjust the time to get the bore size you want. 6) Maintain pressure and rinse needle with MQ H2O from a squirt bottle. Release pressure and blot excess water from needle (but don't touch the tip). 7) Mount needle and inject. C) Notes 1) This method will eventually chew up your stir bar. 2) I rinse and reautoclave the sand about once a week. I'm not sure this is necessary, but it doesn't hurt. 3) After trying several containers, I have settled on a Pyrex storage dish (#3250-DO) 100 x 80 mm. I use about a 1cm layer of sand. ***