1031A Poster - 16. Techniques and technology
Thursday April 07, 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Authors:
Michael Stinchfield ¹; Mary Jane O'Connor ²; Brandon Weasner ³; Bonnie Weasner ³; Justin Kumar ³; Kevin Cook ³; Michael O'Connor ²; Stuart Newfeld ¹

Affiliations:
1) School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ ; 2) Dept. Genetics, Cell Biology and Development, Univ. Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN; 3) Dept. Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN

Keywords:
q. other (Resource generation); n. other (Resource generation)

The 4th chromosome is the final frontier for genetic analysis in Drosophila. Small and devoid of recombination the 4th has long been ignored. Nevertheless it contains 105 genes (79 protein coding and 26 noncoding RNA). 74% of the protein coding genes have human homologs and 68% of these have a disease association. For example Eyeless belongs to the PAX/RAX family where inherited loss of PAX6 leads to Aniridia and somatic loss of RAX2 leads to age-related macular degeneration. A complete understanding of metazoan biology and thus human health requires the examination of these genes. To advance this effort ASU, IU and UMN will collaborate to create a resource facilitating the analyses of genes on the 4th. The resource will contain stocks divided into several collections. 1. FRT101F with a CRISPR mutation for loss of function and MARCM studies. 2. Conversion of protein coding genes with an existing MIMIC or CRIMIC to T2A.GAL4 and eGFP for protein traps and gain of function studies. 3. Gain of function stocks with a UAS.fly cDNA for each protein coding gene. 4. Gain of function stocks with a UAS.human cDNA for the two closest human homologs for each conserved protein coding gene. 5. Auxiliary chromosomes and balancers. Progress on all collections will be described. This resource will be made available through BDSC to all qualified investigators.