title: Whole-mount immunostaining of the adult Drosophila gastrointestinal tract.
abstract: The gastrointestinal (GI) tract harbors an essential barrier epithelium that separates an organism from its changing external environment. As such, the gut epithelium is a fascinating nexus of stem cell biology, immunology and physiology. Investigators have sought to mine this rich interface for new biological and mechanistic insights. Many of the powerful genetic approaches developed in Drosophila have proven effective in the study of the gut. The goal of this article is to present a method for dissecting, immunostaining and mounting samples of the adult Drosophila GI tract. This protocol combines readily with techniques to label cell lineages and/or challenge the system with environmental perturbations, which are briefly discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Developmental Biology, Washington University School of Medicine, 660 South Euclid Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States. Electronic address: micchelli@wustl.edu.
authors.forename: Craig A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Micchelli
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019070:Cell Lineage; D015509:Developmental Biology / Q000379:methods*; D004330:Drosophila; D004848:Epithelium / Q000276:immunology; D041981:Gastrointestinal Tract / Q000166:cytology* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000276:immunology; D007120:Immunochemistry / Q000379:methods; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000235:genetics; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*
keywords: Adult Drosophila midgut; Environmental challenge; Lineage tracing; Stem cell