酵母粉对果蝇精子发生之影响

目的探讨酵母粉对果蝇精子发生各时期的影响。方法野生型黑腹雄蝇按2-3-3法处理,置于每管酵母粉含量为0,5 mg/vial,10 mg/vial,15 mg/vial培养基中培养,统计精子发生各阶段精细胞数目。结果随着酵母粉量的增加,精子发生在各阶段细胞数量增加,在不同处理组中雄蝇在其精子发生各阶段中,以第3天形成精细胞数量最多,其中10 mg/vial和15 mg/vial最为显著。酵母粉量的增加,在精细胞阶段促进精细胞数量增加最为显著,成熟精子阶段也有增加,精母细胞阶段精细胞数量呈增加后逐渐减少趋势。结论酵母粉可促进果蝇的精子发生,特别在精细胞阶段,促使精细胞数量增加,高峰期明显提前并持续延长形成时间。     

Hira基因的过量表达对果蝇早期胚胎发育的影响

Hir／Hira基因产物是组蛋白基因表达的一种负调节因子,其在果蝇发育过程中的作用还没有得到确认．本研究将果蝇Hira基因（dHira）的cDNA克隆到载体UAsP中,运用UAS—Gal4系统使其在果蝇早期胚胎中大量表达．结果发现在胚胎发育早期,无论是在头部还是在全胚胎过量表达Hira,都引起果蝇胚胎大量死亡,而且随着转基因拷贝数的增加,胚胎的死亡率也显著增加,说明Hira过量表达对果蝇胚胎发育产生严重影响．由于Hira基因产物与核小体的组装、染色质结构等的调节有关,因此推测Hira过量表达可能是通过对组蛋白的抑制对果蝇胚胎发育造成影响的．     

Drosophila melanogaster mitochondrial DNA, a novel organization and genetic code

The sequence of a 4,869 base-pair fragment of Drosophila melanogaster mitochondrial DNA is presented. It contains genes for cytochrome oxidase subunits I, II and III, ATPase subunit 6 and six tRNAs together with two unassigned reading frames. The gene organization differs from that of mammalian mitochondrial DNAs. Evidence is provided for a genetic code in which AGA codes for serine and the quadruplet ATAA is used in initiation of translation.     

Cryopreservation of Drosophila melanogaster embryos

There is an urgent need to preserve the ever-increasing number (greater than 30,000) of different genetic strains of D. melanogaster that are maintained in national and international stock centres and in the laboratories of individual investigators. In all cases, the stocks are maintained as adult populations and require transfer to fresh medium every two to four weeks. This is not only costly in terms of materials, labour and space, but unique strains are vulnerable to accidental loss, contamination, and changes in genotype that can occur during continuous culture through mutation, genetic drift or selection. Although cryopreservation of Drosophila germ-plasm would be an enormous advantage, many attempts using conventional procedures have been unsuccessful. D. melanogaster embryos are refractory to conventional cryopreservation procedures because of the contravening conditions required to minimize mortality resulting from both intracellular ice formation and chilling injury at subzero temperatures. To overcome these obstacles, we have developed a vitrification procedure that precludes intracellular ice formation so that the embryos can be cooled and warmed at ultra-rapid rates to minimize chilling injury, and have recovered viable embryos following storage in liquid nitrogen. In a series of 53 experiments, a total of 3,711 larvae emerged from 17,280 eggs that were cooled in liquid nitrogen (18.4 +/- 8.8%). Further, using a subset from this population, approximately 3% of the surviving larvae (24/800) developed into adults. These adults were fertile and produced an F1 generation.     

Visual place learning in Drosophila melanogaster

The ability of insects to learn and navigate to specific locations in the environment has fascinated naturalists for decades. The impressive navigational abilities of ants, bees, wasps and other insects demonstrate that insects are capable of visual place learning, but little is known about the underlying neural circuits that mediate these behaviours. Drosophila melanogaster (common fruit fly) is a powerful model organism for dissecting the neural circuitry underlying complex behaviours, from sensory perception to learning and memory. Drosophila can identify and remember visual features such as size, colour and contour orientation. However, the extent to which they use vision to recall specific locations remains unclear. Here we describe a visual place learning platform and demonstrate that Drosophila are capable of forming and retaining visual place memories to guide selective navigation. By targeted genetic silencing of small subsets of cells in the Drosophila brain, we show that neurons in the ellipsoid body, but not in the mushroom bodies, are necessary for visual place learning. Together, these studies reveal distinct neuroanatomical substrates for spatial versus non-spatial learning, and establish Drosophila as a powerful model for the study of spatial memories.