Captured segment exchange: a strategy for custom engineering large genomic regions in Drosophila melanogaster

Genetics. 2013 Feb;193(2):421-30. doi: 10.1534/genetics.112.145748. Epub 2012 Nov 12.

Abstract

Site-specific recombinases (SSRs) are valuable tools for manipulating genomes. In Drosophila, thousands of transgenic insertions carrying SSR recognition sites have been distributed throughout the genome by several large-scale projects. Here we describe a method with the potential to use these insertions to make custom alterations to the Drosophila genome in vivo. Specifically, by employing recombineering techniques and a dual recombinase-mediated cassette exchange strategy based on the phiC31 integrase and FLP recombinase, we show that a large genomic segment that lies between two SSR recognition-site insertions can be "captured" as a target cassette and exchanged for a sequence that was engineered in bacterial cells. We demonstrate this approach by targeting a 50-kb segment spanning the tsh gene, replacing the existing segment with corresponding recombineered sequences through simple and efficient manipulations. Given the high density of SSR recognition-site insertions in Drosophila, our method affords a straightforward and highly efficient approach to explore gene function in situ for a substantial portion of the Drosophila genome.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • DNA Nucleotidyltransferases / genetics
  • Drosophila Proteins / genetics
  • Drosophila melanogaster / enzymology
  • Drosophila melanogaster / genetics*
  • Gene Targeting*
  • Genome, Insect*
  • Integrases / genetics
  • Mutagenesis, Insertional*
  • Mutagenesis, Site-Directed
  • Repressor Proteins / genetics

Substances

  • Drosophila Proteins
  • Repressor Proteins
  • tsh protein, Drosophila
  • DNA Nucleotidyltransferases
  • FLP recombinase
  • Integrases
  • Site-specific recombinase