Electroporation of Drosophila Embryos

The ability to introduce DNA into embryos for the purpose of obtaining stable transformants is an important part of the technology that supports the exquisite genetic and molecular studies in Drosophila . As this ability to stably transform Drosophila embryos was developed, it became obvious that DNA introduced via microinjection could be transiently expressed in somatic cells of the embryo, larva, and even adult, regardless of whether it had also integrated into the germ-line nuclei (1 ). These observations prompted workers to examine the somatic expression of genes carried on microinjected λ phage to determine whether the clone carried a functional version of a particular gene (2 ). This provided an easier and much more rapid answer compared to making a stable transformant.