Emery Patrick
Department of Neurobiology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, USA.
Methods Mol Biol. 2007;362:187-95. doi: 10.1007/978-1-59745-257-1_13.
Forward genetics in Drosophila has profoundly affected our understanding of circadian rhythms in this organism and, more generally, in the animal kingdom. Most Drosophila pacemaker genes were discovered through the isolation of gene variants affecting the free-running period of the circadian pacemaker. There are different ways to mutagenize flies. An alkylating agent can be used to randomly alter the fly genome, or transposable elements can be mobilized to disrupt or increase the expression of the targeted genes. The advantages of these different methods are complementary.
果蝇中的正向遗传学深刻影响了我们对该生物体以及更广泛地在动物界中昼夜节律的理解。大多数果蝇生物钟基因是通过分离影响生物钟起搏器自由运转周期的基因变体而发现的。有多种方法可使果蝇发生诱变。可以使用烷化剂随机改变果蝇基因组，或者可以动员转座元件来破坏或增加目标基因的表达。这些不同方法的优点是互补的。
