DROSOPHILA INFORMATION NEWSLETTER Volume 15, July 1994 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 Internet -- To: LISTSERV@IUBVM.UCS.INDIANA.EDU Subject: Message: SUB DIS-L Your real name Via Bitnet -- To: LISTSERV@IUBVM 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. 15 TABLE OF CONTENTS >Introduction to Drosophila Information Newsletter >How to subscribe to the Newsletter >TABLE OF CONTENTS >ANNOUNCEMENTS >Mid-America Stock Center news (Bowling Green) >Bloomington Stock Center news >REQUESTS FOR MATERIALS >Insectavoxes >MATERIALS AVAILABLE >Stocks from the Kafatos lab *** ANNOUNCEMENTS MID-AMERICA STOCK CENTER NEWS (BOWLING GREEN) 182 new stocks have been added to the collection. The update of our stock list that we provided to FlyBase this spring includes these new stocks. For further information, contact Ron Woodruff or Phyllis Oster, Dept. of Biological Sciences, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403. 419-372-2631, demlano@opie.bgsu.edu. *** BLOOMINGTON STOCK CENTER NEWS * myc-tagged FRT stocks: Some people are having problems getting good staining of myc-tagged clones with the FRT system of Xu and Rubin (Development 117:1223). According to Gerry Rubin, the quality of the individual batch of antibody is a critical factor. He says that the Artavanis-Tsakonas lab, and others, have generated batches of antibody that give reliably good results by growing subclones of the monoclonal line (Myc 1-9E10.2) and selecting one that provides good staining. * Voice-mail is currently unavailable at 812-855-5783. Please place your stock requests by e-mail to MATTHEWK@INDIANA.EDU, by FAX to 812-855-2577, or phone 812-855- 5782. *** REQUESTS FOR MATERIALS INSECTAVOX Scott P. McRobert, Dept. of Biology, St. Joseph's University, Philadelphia, PA 19131. 215-660-1833, smcrober@sju.edu. Does anyone still build INSECTAVOXes for fun and profit? I have the box, but I need someone who can install the "guts". *** MATERIALS AVAILABLE KAFATOS FLY STOCKS: TERMINATION NOTICE OK, here is latest from Lorraine Lukas, grand Poobah of the fly facility: Approximately half of the Kafatos stocks are past due and will be autoclaved on Friday, July 8. Flies that will be maintained until July 31 are described in recent papers authored by F.C. Kafatos and Shea, Mariani, Orr, Tolias or Fenerjian. Just as a reminder, select female sterile, amplification mutants and chorion promoter-lacz transgenics will be maintained in Heidelburg. Some authors, particularly those still working in flies, can be contacted directly for stocks. And of course, as the majority of stocks terminated are transgenic flies, these lines can be remade by injecting particular constructs, which the lab in Heidelburg maintains as DNA. So last call, and I will do my best to fill orders. Requests should be directed to Dr. Len Dobens (phone 617-495-3292; FAX 617-495-4312; E-mail dobens@biosun.harvard.edu). ***