title: Maintenance of a Drosophila melanogaster Population Cage.
abstract: Large quantities of DNA, RNA, proteins and other cellular components are often required for biochemistry and molecular biology experiments. The short life cycle of Drosophila enables collection of large quantities of material from embryos, larvae, pupae and adult flies, in a synchronized way, at a low economic cost. A major strategy for propagating large numbers of flies is the use of a fly population cage. This useful and common tool in the Drososphila community is an efficient way to regularly produce milligrams to tens of grams of embryos, depending on uniformity of developmental stage desired. While a population cage can be time consuming to set up, maintaining a cage over months takes much less time and enables rapid collection of biological material in a short period. This paper describes a detailed and flexible protocol for the maintenance of a Drosophila melanogaster population cage, starting with 1.5 g of harvested material from the previous cycle.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cellular and Developmental Biology, National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health.
authors.forename: Juan Manuel
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Caravaca
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cellular and Developmental Biology, National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health; leielissa@niddk.nih.gov.
authors.forename: Elissa P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Lei
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004330:Drosophila; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000196:embryology* / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007814:Larva; D008967:Molecular Biology / Q000379:methods