DROSOPHILA INFORMATION NEWSLETTER Volume 5, January 1992 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 for publication in DIS. Materials appearing in the Newsletter will be reprinted, in unedited form, in the next issue of DIS. Back issues of DIN are posted on the Indiana fileserver in the directory fly/news. Material appearing in the Newsletter may be cited unless specifically noted otherwise. Material for publication may be submitted in any of the following formats - Macintosh Microsoft Word or MacWrite, MS-DOS WordPerfect, or text/ASCII file. Figures and photographs cannot be accepted at present. Send material, in order of preference, as E-mail (addresses below), on floppy disk, or as laserwriter or typed hard-copy (not bit-mapped). Technical notes should be sent to Carl Thummel, all other material should be sent 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@IUBACS.BITNET THUMMEL@MEDSCHOOL.MED.UTAH.EDU MATTHEWK@UCS.INDIANA.EDU *** To add your name to the Newsletter distribution list, send one of the following E-mail messages. 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 are on the list and do not wish to receive DIN, or you want to remove a 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. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS >Introduction to Drosophila Information Newsletter >How to subscribe to the Newsletter >TABLE OF CONTENTS >ANNOUNCEMENTS >1992 Drosophila Conference >1992 Meeting of the Drosophila Board >DIS 71 >Gordon Conference on meiosis >Postdoctoral positions in Drosophila genetics >New phone numbers at Johns Hopkins and Carnegie Institution >The Council on Undergraduate Research >REQUESTS FOR MATERIALS >Information for libraries list >DATABASES/COMPUTING >Drosophila database on the network >TECHNICAL NOTES >Injecting through the chorion *** ANNOUNCEMENTS 1992 DROSOPHILA CONFERENCE. The 33rd Annual Drosophila Research Conference will be held March 11-15, 1991 at the Wyndham Hotel, Philadelphia, PA. The meeting organizer is Bill Gelbart. Advance registration deadline is January 27, 1992. For registration information contact the Genetics Society of America at 301-571- 1825. *** 1992 MEETING OF THE DROSOPHILA BOARD. The Drosophila Board will meet on March 11 in Philadelphia. If you have concerns about the annual conference, DIS, DIN, operation of the board itself, or other issues that you would like brought before the board, contact your representative before the meeting. See DIS 70 or DIN 2 for the name and address of your current representative. *** DIS 71. Drosophila Information Service 71, to be published July 1992, will contain: stock lists, directory of Drosophila researchers, relevant material from DIN 1-5, technique notes, research notes, and new mutant reports. If you have material to submit, please do so as soon as possible to: Drosophila Information Service, c/o James N. Thompson, jr., Dept. of Zoology, U. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA. Material will be accepted until the issue is full, but no later than 1 April 1992. See DIS 70:108 for a guide to authors. There is a modest page charge for halftones and for long articles. Order forms can be obtained from the above address. Price is $12.00 plus shipping ($3.00 for USA surface, $6.00 for foreign surface; see order form for various foreign air mail shipping charges). All orders must be accompanied by a check in U.S. currency drawn on a U.S. bank. *** MEIOSIS - A NEW GORDON RESEARCH CONFERENCE. July 12-17, 1992; Plymouth State College; Plymouth, New Hampshire, USA. This meeting will emphasize presentation of recent results on the nature of meiosis with a view towards integration of classical and molecular observations. Talks on important aspects of meiosis will be included. The meeting will be structured so as to encourage discussion and the consideration of new paradigms for thinking about these problems. TOPICS: Mechanisms of and relationships among chromosome pairing, synaptonemal complex formation and recombination; chromosome structure and condensation; roles of topoisomerases; mechanistic approaches to a genome-wide homology search; chiasmata and pairing sites; three dimensional array of chromosomes; cell cycle checkpoints at and after pachytene; control of recombination and chromosome pairing; moving chromosomes with motor proteins; attaching chromosomes to the spindle; sister chromatid adhesion; entry into meiosis and meiotic gene expression; human disorders of meiosis; and the evolutionary importance of recombination. SPEAKERS: B. Byers, D. Camerini-Otero, A. Campell, D. Dawson, R.E. Esposito, L. Goldstein, T. Hassold, R.S. Hawley, C. Heyting, P. Hieter, G. Jones, N. Kleckner, A. Mitchell, K. Mizuuchi, H. Nash, A. Nicolas, B. Nicklas, T. Orr-Weaver, D. Perkins, P. Pukkila, C. Rieder, S. Roeder, S. Rasmussen, J.-L. Rossignol, J. Sedat, D. Sherratt, G. Simchen, F. Stahl, E. Taylor, W. Therkauf, M. Yamamoto, D. Zickler. TO REGISTER: See the March 6 issue of Science magazine. ORGANIZERS: Dr. R. Scott Hawley, Dept. of Genetics, U. of California, Davis, CA, USA; Dr. Gareth Jones, Dept. of Genetics, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK; Dr. Nancy Kleckner, Dept. of Biochem. and Molecular Biology, Harvard U., Cambridge, MA, USA; Dr. Gloria Simchen, Dept. of Genetics, Hebrew U., Jerusalem, Israel. *** POSTDOCTORAL POSITIONS IN DROSOPHILA GENETICS. 1) Available February 1, 1992 or thereafter to study dosage- sensitive regulators of the white eye color gene. Send curriculum vitae and the names of three references to: Dr. James A. Birchler, Division of Biological Sciences, 117 Tucker Hall, U. of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211. 2) Available immediately, to study P element transposition and its accompanying DNA gap repair. See article by Gloor et al., Science 253:1110 (1991) for more details. Send resume and references to: Dr. William R. Engels, U. of Wisconsin, Genetics Dept., Madison, WI 53706, or E-mail to: WRENGELS@VMS.MACC.WISC.EDU. *** NEW PHONE NUMBERS AT JOHNS HOPKINS AND CARNEGIE INSTITUTION. As of November 1, 1991, the area code for Johns Hopkins and the Carnegie was changed from 301 to 410. The following fly labs have the 410 area code: Beachy, Corces, Fyrberg, Montell, Shearn, Spradling. In addition, the exchange was changed from 338 to 516 for Shearn, Fyrberg, and Corces. *** THE COUNCIL ON UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH. The mission of the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) is to promote science and mathematics research at primarily undergraduate institutions. Key elements of this mission include working with federal agencies, corporations and foundations to develop programs which support research in the undergraduate environment and, through our newsletter, conferences and directories, disseminating information about funding sources, grant proposal development, and ideas for developing and supporting a successful undergraduate research program. The specific goals of CUR include: --Increasing the quantity and quality of student-faculty research in science and mathematics at primarily undergraduate institutions --Increasing the understanding and awareness nationwide of research done at undergraduate institutions --Strengthening the integration of research with teaching. Presently, CUR members can join one of six disciplinary councils including the Biology Council. If you support the goals of CUR and would like to become a member, contact John Stevens, National Executive Officer, The Council on Undergraduate Research, University of North Carolina at Ashville, Ashville, NC 28804-3299; phone: 704-251-6006. *** REQUESTS FOR MATERIALS COMPILATION OF DROSOPHILA GENOMIC AND CDNA LIBRARIES Carl S. Thummel, HHMI, 5200 Eccles Institute, Bldg. 533, U. of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84112, USA. 801-581-2937, FAX/5374, THUMMEL@MEDSCHOOL.MED.UTAH.EDU. This request has been published in the last two issues of DIN, for 6 months, and I have received only two responses. This effort will not work unless you help. Your effort now will save many people both time and effort in their work (and perhaps even help you someday!). Please take a few minutes NOW to read this request and send me your library information. Although a number of Drosophila genomic and cDNA libraries have been constructed, one must depend on word-of-mouth and publications to learn which libraries are currently available and how useful they are for specific experimental purposes. I would like to create a listing of all available Drosophila genomic and cDNA libraries. This compilation should prevent the construction of duplicate libraries as well as facilitate the isolation of Drosophila genes. This listing will include the following categories: genomic (cosmid, phage) and cDNA (regular and expression). Please specify which libraries you have available and send the following additional information (preferably by Email or FAX). 1. Vector and site of insertion 2. Complexity (i.e. total number of clones that are present in the library) 3. Source of DNA (Drosophila strain; also stage and tissues for cDNA) 4. Your name, address, phone and FAX numbers, and Email address 5. Any additional information that might be of use. 6. References (if any) Since amplified phage libraries can be safely shipped by regular mail, without wet or dry ice, the distribution of these libraries should entail little expense. Thank you for your help. This should be a valuable resource for the entire Drosophila community. *** DATABASES/COMPUTING DROSOPHILA DATABASE ON THE NETWORK Kathy Matthews, Indiana Drosophila Stock Center, Dept. of Biology, Indiana U., Bloomington, IN 47405, USA. 812-855-5792, FAX/2577, MATTHEWK@UCS.INDIANA.EDU or @IUBACS. The set of flat files that currently constitute the free- access Drosophila community database are now posted on the file server FLY.BIO.INDIANA.EDU (129.79.224.25) as part of Don Gilbert's Archive for Biology. Unless noted otherwise, the files are located in the subdirectory fly. Currently available files include Michael Ashburner's genetic map and chromosome aberration lists and a list of cosmids that have been localized to the cytological map (these files are in fly/loci), John Merriam's Genevent summary file (showing the cytological locations of cloned DNA, rearrangement breakpoints, and transposable element insertions (called clonelist.txt), Sally Amero's cytological features file which lists polytene sites known to bind antibodies to particular proteins (called amero.txt), John Haynie's directory of Drosophila workers' e-mail addresses, stock lists from the Bloomington and Bowling Green stock centers, and back issues of DIN (in fly/news). If you have a database that would be useful to others, please consider posting it on FLY. The server can be reached as follows: ftp FTP.BIO.INDIANA.EDU (or FLY.BIO.INDIANA.EDU; by using FTP.BIO.INDIANA.EDU, you will reach the database even if it has temporarily been moved to another machine) user: anonymous password: your e-mail address cd fly (or fly/loci, fly/news; must be lower case) dir (to see a list of files) get filename (to copy files individually) or mget *.txt (or *.doc or *.* to copy multiple files; respond yes to the files you want copied) bye (or quit, to log off) Some things to remember: you must use ftp, not telnet, to access the server. Spaces count - if a space is shown above, be sure you include it. FLY is a Unix, so case is important. Commands shown in lower case must be typed in lower case, and file names must be typed as they appear in the directory. The directory path to your current location is implied when using "cd fly" to move down in the directory. When moving back up the directory hierarchy, you must add a "/". For example, to move from fly/loci to fly, type "cd /fly"; to move back to the archive root, type "cd /". *** TECHNICAL NOTES INJECTING THROUGH THE CHORION - A REMINDER Kathy Matthews, Dept. of Biology, Indiana U., Bloomington, IN 47405, USA. 812-855-5792, FAX/2577, MATTHEWK@UCS.INDIANA.EDU or @IUBACS. From discussions of P-element transformation with a variety of people using the stock center, it appears that quite a few labs are not aware that embryos can be successfully injected without dechorionation. This simplified method was reported by Robertson et al., Genetics 118:461-470 (1988), with thanks to Ed Korn for developing the technique. Since intact embryos don't require desiccation before injecting, the dessication step is deleted as well as the dechorionation process. In addition to the time saved, stress on the embryos is reduced. The only modification we made to adapt our injection technique to this method was to shorten the taper of our needles to prevent flexing and breaking as they are forced through the chorion. ***