A toolkit for converting Gal4 into LexA and Flippase transgenes in Drosophila.

Sasidhar Karuparti, Ann T Yeung, Bei Wang, Pedro F Guicardi, Chun Han

G3 (Bethesda, Md.) 2023 Jan 06

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Drosophila has been a powerful model system for biological studies due to the wide range of genetic tools established for it. Among these tools, Gal4 is the most abundant, offering unparalleled tissue and developmental stage specificity for gene manipulation. In comparison, other genetic reagents are far fewer in choices. Here we present a genetic toolkit for converting Gal4 strains into LexA and Flippase transgenes through simple genetic crosses and fluorescence screening. We demonstrate the proof-of-principle by converting ten Gal4 lines that exhibit diverse tissue specificities and examined the activity patterns of the converted LexA and Flippase lines. Gal4-to-LexA and Flp conversion is fast and convenient and should greatly expand the choices of LexA and Flp for binary expression and FRT-based mosaic analysis, respectively, in Drosophila. © The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Genetics Society of America.

Citation

Sasidhar Karuparti, Ann T Yeung, Bei Wang, Pedro F Guicardi, Chun Han. A toolkit for converting Gal4 into LexA and Flippase transgenes in Drosophila. G3 (Bethesda, Md.). 2023 Jan 06;13(3)