DROSOPHILA INFORMATION NEWSLETTER Volume 6, April 1992 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 for publication in DIS. Materials appearing in the Newsletter will be reprinted in DIS. Back issues of DIN are posted on the Indiana fileserver in the directory fly/news. Material appearing in the Newsletter may be cited unless specifically noted otherwise. Material for publication may be submitted in any of the following formats - Macintosh Microsoft Word or MacWrite, MS-DOS WordPerfect, or text/ASCII file. Figures and photographs cannot be accepted at present. Send material, in order of preference, as E-mail (addresses below), on floppy disk, or as laserwriter or typed hard-copy (not bit-mapped). Technical notes should be sent to Carl Thummel, all other material should be sent 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@IUBACS.BITNET THUMMEL@MEDSCHOOL.MED.UTAH.EDU MATTHEWK@UCS.INDIANA.EDU *** DIN 6 To add your name to the Newsletter distribution list, send one of the following E-mail messages. Via Bitnet -- To: LISTSERV@IUBVM Subject: Message: SUB DIS-L Your real name Via Internet -- To: LISTSERV@IUBVM.UCS.INDIANA.EDU 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 are on the list and do not wish to receive DIN, or you want to remove a 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 6 DIN Vol. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS >Introduction to Drosophila Information Newsletter >How to subscribe to the Newsletter >TABLE OF CONTENTS >ANNOUNCEMENTS >DIS 71 >13th European Drosophila Research Conference >Drosophila Population Biology meeting >Gordon Conference on meiosis >Postdoctoral positions >Bloomington stock center summer schedule >COMMENTARY >Annual Drosophila meeting format >REQUESTS FOR MATERIALS >Natural orcein >Survival data >DATABASES/COMPUTING >Drosophila database on the network >TECHNICAL NOTES >An improved proboscis extension assay >GENETIC NOTES >New lac-z-marked balancer *** DIN 6 DIS 71. Drosophila Information Service 71, to be published July 1992, will contain: stock lists, directory of Drosophila researchers, relevant material from DIN 1-5, technique notes, research notes, and new mutant reports. To obtain an order form write to: Drosophila Information Service, c/o James N. Thompson, jr., Dept. of Zoology, U. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA. Price is $12.00 plus shipping ($3.00 for USA surface, $6.00 for foreign surface; see order form for various foreign air mail shipping charges). All orders must be accompanied by a check in U.S. currency drawn on a U.S. bank. *** DIN 6 13th EUROPEAN DROSOPHILA RESEARCH CONFERENCE. Dear Colleague, It may come as a surprise to you to find the first circular of the 13th EDRC in your mailbox some 20 months before it takes place, but the organizing committee felt that it would be necessary to contact you as soon as possible. As you may already have heard, our Swiss colleagues had to give up their plans to organize the next EDRC, due to unforseen and unsolvable organizational problems at the University of Zuerich. The Crete laboratory was asked whether it could take over, and we agreed. The 13th EDRC is, thus, scheduled for September 12-17, 1993 in Crete. Since the month of September is still high season on the island, it is extremely difficult for us, at this time, to let you know the exact location of the Conference. We are trying our best to find accommodation for the constantly rising number of European drosophilists and also to guarantee low prices for rooms in a place that will be conveniently close to an airport. This requires long searching and a lot of bargaining on our side. We understand that scientists would like to keep their freedom of scheduling their attendance until the very last moment but these circumstances make it mandatory for us to plan a long way ahead. Therefore, in our next circular, which will be mailed fall 1992, we will ask for a preregistration, i.e. a more or less final decision as to whether you would like to attend, and whether you would want us to book hotel rooms for you. After the final registration deadline in February or March 1993 we will no longer be in a position to offer any help with lodging and you will be on your own. Bear in mind, though, that during last year most of the hotels in Crete were overbooked until the beginning of November. Finally, you will also have noticed that the Conference will last one day longer than usual. This means that there will be more opportunities for oral presentations. Although, again, no final commitments will be required we would welcome your preferences in this matter (poster or oral presentation) soon after the second circular has been received by you. For more information please contact: 13th European Drosophila Research Conference c/o Dr. K. Louis Insect Molecular Genetics Group Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology P.O.Box 1527, GR-711 10 Heraklion, Crete, Greece fax: 0030-81-231308 E-mail: FLIES@GRIMBB or FLIES@MYIA.IMBB.FORTH.GR *** DIN 6 DROSOPHILA POPULATION BIOLOGY MEETING, to be held Monday 21 to Thursday 24 September 1992, Leeds University, Yorkshire, UK. This meeting, organized by the Drosophila Population Biology Unit (Professor Bryan Shorrocks) will cover wild Drosophila populations and their interactions with the environment. For further details contact the organizer Dr. Andrew Davis PAB6AWD@UK.AC.Leeds.CMS1 (or fax +44 532 332909). *** DIN 6 MEIOSIS - A NEW GORDON RESEARCH CONFERENCE. July 12-17, 1992; Plymouth State College; Plymouth, New Hampshire, USA. This meeting will emphasize presentation of recent results on the nature of meiosis with a view towards integration of classical and molecular observations. See DIN Vol. 5 and the March 6 issue of Science magazine for further information. *** DIN 6 POSTDOCTORAL POSITIONS AVAILABLE 1) A postdoctoral position is available immediately to study chromosomal inheritance at the Salk Institute. One project will focus on the identification, isolation and study of the centromere, and other chromosomal elements, essential to the meiotic and mitotic inheritance of a Drosophila minichromosome (Dp(1;f)1187). Our research will capitalize on the molecular and genetical tools generated during studies of the centromeric heterochromatin of Dp(1;f)1187 (Karpen and Spradling, Cell 63:97 (1990)). A second project will utilize the genetic properties of Dp(1;f)1187 to identify gene products that interact in trans with the centromere to promote transmission. By studying both the cis and trans components essential to inheritance of this minichromosome, we expect to gain a better understanding of the structure of the centromere and the kinetochore, as well as the molecular basis for interaction between these components. Practical applications of these studies include the development of a minichromosome vector for the analysis of chromosomal functions and large genes in Drosophila and other higher eukaryotes. The Salk Institute in general, and the Molecular Biology and Virology Laboratory in particular, provide an excellent environment for scientific research. The atmosphere is congenial, and dedicated to the pursuit of a wide variety of biological questions. The climate of La Jolla and San Diego, and the numerous opportunities for pursuing outdoors activities, make this an ideal setting in which one can integrate hard work and relaxing play. Candidates should send a resume and three references to: Dr. Gary Karpen, MBVL, The Salk Institute, 10010 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037 (phone 619-453-4100 ext. 473), or E-mail to: KARPEN@SALK-SCI.SDSC.EDU (internet) or KARPEN@SALK.BITNET (bitnet). 2) A postdoctoral position is available immediately to study developmental neurobiology of the visual system and the molecular mechanisms that guide axons to their targets and that induce the brain to develop. Projects combine molecular biology, genetics and cell biology emphasizing gene expression at both the transcript and protein level in situ. Conventional light microscopes, optical sectioning microscopes (laser confocal and deconvolution), and electron microscopes are all available. Send curriculum vitae and references to: Dr. John A. Pollock, Carnegie Mellon Univ., Dept. of Biological Sciences, 4400 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh PA 15213; E-Mail jp4o@andrew.cmu.edu. 3) Available immediately: Postdoctoral position to study the genetic structure and behavior of the Responder (Rsp) locus in the 2R centromeric heterochromatin of D. melanogaster, including transformation with Rsp DNA repeats and assessment of dose/response relationship between DNA repeat number and sensitivity to sperm dysfunction induced by the Segregation distorter (SD) locus. (See Lyttle article in Ann. Rev. Gen. (1991) volume 25). Send letter of application and three letters of reference to: Terrence W. Lyttle, A102 Biomedical Sciences Bldg., Dept. of Genetics and Molecular Biology, Univ. of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822, FAX 808 956 5506, e-mail LYTTLE@UHCCVX or TLYTTLE@UHUNIX.UHCC.HAWAII.EDU. 4) Available April 1, 1992, or thereafter to work on the genetics and evolution of male genital morphology in Drosophila using enhancer trap screening and P element transformation. Experience with Drosophila genetics and molecular biology is desirable. Please request additional information or send cv, brief description of research experience and three letters of reference to: Dr. Cathy C. Laurie, Dept. of Zoology, Duke U., Durham, NC 27706. *** DIN 6 BLOOMINGTON STOCK CENTER SUMMER SCHEDULE The Bloomington stock center will be closed the week of July 5. Orders received after 12 noon Hoosier time (CDST) on July 2 will be processed the week of the 12th for shipment July 20. *** DIN 6 COMMENTARY ARE THE ANNUAL DROSOPHILA RESEARCH MEETINGS GETTING TOO BIG? Frank M. Butterworth, Oakland U., Rochester, MI. BUTTERWO@VELA.ACS.OAKLAND.EDU. Yes. They are not only too big, but also they are too expensive. My recommendation is to limit the size either by having a registration cut-off number or limiting the number of attendees from a given lab, OR having several simultaneous meetings with maybe only 4-5 specific topics instead of 10-15. Maybe you'll have to do all three. If you have to have concurrent sessions, the meeting is still too big. They should be given in cheaper places such as university campuses which rent out their facilities in the summer. There is absolutely no reason why we have to put so much financial stress on underfunded scientists and students. For the past decade the meetings have slowly but inexorably become more populous and are slowly losing their ability to do what they're supposed to: namely to provide an EFFECTIVE vehicle for the EFFICIENT exchange of information. At the risk of sounding condescending, meetings to be EFFECTIVE AND EFFICIENT must be limited in size - limited numbers of plenary talks with NO concurrent sessions, limited costs, limited numbers of attendees, and limited space. These limitations would keep people in close proximity during meals and coffee breaks and assure plenty of time for people to meet as many others as they wish and plenty of time for leisurely discussion. It is a lot of work to host and plan a meeting, and I think the makers and shakers of the "fly society" are doing a great job (thanks folks!), but at the same time are losing track of things. We all know what makes a good meeting, but I feel our leaders need some feedback from us followers. After all aren't we the ones who make you leaders? The fly meetings are popular because they are good. However they WERE great! Now I feel they have reached the point where they no longer perform their intended function. If small meetings are good, why are big meetings bad? Because they are incredible time wasters. At the last ASCB meeting I attended, I spent at least fifty percent of my time going somewhere, trying to get to a concurrent session, trying to find someone, trying to make reservations for dinner, traveling around in cabs and shuttle buses. Next time you're at a large meeting stop for a moment and watch. What do you see? Weary people by the hundreds walking back and forth, almost aimlessly. Not talking science, but walking! Walking is good, but this is ridiculous. Big meetings also create information overload. In one day you can get enough to saturate your scientific curiosity receptors. In two days you're reduced to the ranks of the aimless walkers. I will bet that if you can set up a science exchange efficiency quotient (SEEQ) you'd find that big meetings will get a low score, small meetings will get a high score. Its time to limit the annual meeting size. Thanks for reading this. I hope in the next DIN we get more dialogue on this topic. [Editors' note: More discussion of this issue is welcome. However, the people who make decisions about meeting formats are the members of the Drosophila board. Your opinion about the annual meeting should be conveyed to your regional representative to the board. See DIN Vol. 2 or DIS 70 for the name and address of your representative.] *** DIN 6 REQUESTS FOR MATERIALS NATURAL ORCEIN Michael Ashburner, Dept. of Genetics, U. of Cambridge, Downing St., Cambridge CB2 3EJ, England. 44-223-333969, FAX/333992, MA11@PHX.CAM.AC.UK. Does anyone know a source for Natural Orcein? Gurr's (that is BDH) now only stock synthetic. If you let me know directly then I will broadcast the information in the next issue of the Newsletter. Thank you. *** DIN 6 SURVIVAL DATA Matthew Witten, UT System Center For High Performance Computing, Balcones Research Center, 1.154 CMS, 10100 Burnet Rd., Austin, TX 78758-4497, USA. 512-471-2472, FAX/2445 or 2449, M.WITTEN@HERMES.CHPC.UTEXAS.EDU or M.WITTEN@UTCHPC.BITNET. I am actively involved in a long term project on the analysis of survival data. Many people use Drosophila and keep survival distributions under various experimental conditions. I am collecting multispecies datasets on survival of all species and would welcome receipt of reprints/preprints/actual data. We have an electronic submission system SURVIVAL@CHP.UTEXAS.EDU or SURVIVAL@HERMES.CHPC.UTEXAS.EDU. If you have any questions, please contact me. *** DIN 6 DATABASES/COMPUTING INTERNET GOPHER - A BETTER WAY TO GET FLY INFO Kathy Matthews, Dept. of Biology, Indiana U., Bloomington, IN 47405, USA. 812-855-5792, FAX/2577, MATTHEWK@UCS.INDIANA.EDU or @IUBACS. Don Gilbert has added Gopher to the Bloomington server's repertoire. Internet Gopher software was developed at the University of Minnesota to provide a fast and simple means of distributing information over the network. Using Gopher Client software running on your local machine, you can easily access information from other computers running Gopher Server software. Gopher presents a self-explanatory GUI (graphical user interface) that allows you to retrieve whole text files or to search files that have been indexed for Gopher's use. Gopher Client software is available by anonymous ftp to boombox.micro.umn.edu in the directory pub/gopher. This directory has a readme file and 11 subdirectories; type "dir" to see the list, then move into the subdirectory that is relevant for your machine with "cd subdirname". You must type the subdirectory name exactly as it appears in the list; Mac_client will not be found if you type mac_client or Mac-client. Gopher is available for PC, Mac, VMS, CMS, Unix, and NeXT platforms. Copy the relevant files to your local machine with the command "get filename". If you want to move back to the top of the directory, type "cd /". Type "bye" or "quit" to log off when you are through. You will probably need to have someone with experience at configuring network software install the Gopher Client on your machine. IUBio Archive Gopher allows you to retrieve any of the Drosophila-related text files through the menu-driven GUI. In addition, the stock lists (both Bloomington and Bowling Green) can be searched for keywords. At present, keyword searching of the stock lists is not as robust as we would like. Don will be reeducating Gopher in the near future to make it more useful for Drosophila nomenclature. In the meantime, the following might help you make use of the search feature. Gopher was designed to find whole words in text; it ignores punctuation such as parentheses and brackets, and it cannot accept wild-cards. Thus, if Gopher is asked to search for the string "Df(3R)by62", it finds all deficiency stocks, all 3R rearrangements, and all stocks with the string by62, and returns a list of the first 50. A short list of only the desired stocks can be identified using only "by62" as the keyword. Searches can be done on gene symbols or superscripts of two or more letters, but not on gene symbol-superscript combinations (genotypes in the stock lists enclose superscripts in square brackets; Gopher ignores the brackets and searches for the gene symbol and superscript separately, usually resulting in a very long list). For example, asking for "Antp[73b]" produces a long list of all of the stocks containing any Antp allele and anything else with the string 73b, while searching for "73b" finds only stocks with Antp[73b] or revertant alleles. A search for breakpoints must cover all possible band numbers until Don adds wild-cards to Gopher. As it stands now, to find all rearrangements and inserts in 85D you will have to do 15 separate queries - 085D, 085D01, 085D02, etc. through 085D14 (the zeros are a by-product of the DBM used at Bloomington - for stocks to sort properly by breakpoint all segment numbers must be three digits, and all band numbers must be two digits). You will probably find it easier to copy the sorted files for individual rearrangements (Df.txt, Dp.txt, In.txt, and T_Tp.txt) and transposon insertions (P_by_loc.txt and newP_by_loc.txt) from the server (you can do this through Gopher) and simply look at the file on your local machine, scrolling down to the cytological region of interest. To reach the fly server without Gopher: ftp ftp.bio.indiana.edu (or fly.bio.indiana.edu, or 129.79.224.25) user: anonymous password: your e-mail address cd fly (or fly/flybase, fly/news; cd / to the root) dir (to see a list of files and subdirectories) get filename (to copy files individually) or mget *.txt (or *.doc or *.* to copy multiple files; respond yes to the files you want copied) bye (or quit, to log off) Remember: Don't use instructions from old issues of DIN; some aspects of server access have changed significantly. You must use ftp, not telnet, to access the server. Spaces and case count - type commands exactly as shown, and type file names exactly as they appear in the directory. *** DIN 6 TECHNICAL NOTES AN IMPROVED PROBOSCIS EXTENSION ASSAY Eva Cheng, Chungming Chang, and Y. Henry Sun, Institute of Molecular Biology, Academia Sinica, Nankang Taipei 11529, Taiwan, Rep. of China. FAX: 886-2-782-6085, YHSUN%IMB@TWNAS886.BITNET. Flies extend their proboscis in response to a sugar solution applied to the tarsal or labellar taste hairs. This proboscis extension reflex has been extensively used as an assay for gustatory response. In conventional methods, the fly is bound by wax or myristic acid (Tompkins, L. & Barnhart, K. J., 1982, DIS 58: 171-172), the test solution is then applied to the tarsi or labella by cotton-tipped applicator. An alternative method is to mount the fly into a plastic micropipet tip with the head and first pair of legs protruding out of the tip bore (Vargo, M. & Hirsch, J., 1982, DIS 58: 174). Both methods are tedious and slow, unsuitable for large-scale mutant screens. In addition, the flies are being tested under strain, which may affect their response. We have developed a method for testing the proboscis extension reflex in free-walking flies. A 1.5% agarose solution containing test sugar is boiled and cooled to 50-60oC. A 1 ml plastic pipet is cut to 10 cm length. The sugar-agarose solution is sucked up from one end to 4.5 cm high and then expelled. From the other end of the pipet, a 1.5% agarose solution is sucked up to 4.5 cm high and also expelled. A thin agarose coating is thus left along the inner surface of the pipet, with the blank agarose and sugar-agarose on opposite ends, separated by 1 cm to prevent mixing. At the blank agarose end, a plastic 1000 ul pipet tip (blue tip) is attached, with the tip cut to an opening of 2-3 mm in diameter to allow the fly to pass through. A starved and water-satiated fly is introduced into the test pipet through the blue tip. The pipet is then raised to a vertical position and an optic fiber illuminator is positioned above the pipet. The fly is induced to walk upward by negative geotaxis and positive phototaxis. The first section of blank agarose probably accustoms the fly to the agarose coating. When a wild type fly steps onto the sugar-agarose section, its proboscis extends repeatedly. The response can be easily observed without a microscope. This assay is simple, rapid, and the flies are recovered intact. About 60-100 flies can be tested per hour, making large scale mutant screening feasible. Using this assay, we have isolated several mutants with a defective response to sucrose. It is also possible to sequentially suck up agarose solutions with increasing concentrations of sugar, creating partially overlapping layers. This allows the response threshhold to be determined in a single run. This research was supported by grant NSC-78-0203-B001-11 from the National Science Council, ROC. *** DIN 6 GENETIC NOTES NEW LAC-Z MARKED BALANCER Scott Panzer, Alison Fong, and Steve Beckendorf, MCB:Genetics, U. of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. 510-642-6973, FAX/7000; SPANZER@ENZYME.BERKELEY.EDU. We constructed a new lac-Z marked balancer by jumping a P{eve-lacZ} onto SM6B, Cy Roi. Because eve-directed beta-gal synthesis starts in blastoderm embryos, embryos carrying the balancer may be distinguished histochemically from those that don't at many stages of development. (In contrast, the other lacZ marked second chromosome balancer we've come across, CyO-beta P{elav-lacZ}, is most useful only in embryos older than seven hours old). Flies and more information available upon request directly from us (send request by email if possible) or from the Bloomington stock center. *** DIN 6