Yang Daxiang
Department of Zoology and Animal Physiology, College of Biological Sciences, China Agricultural University;
J Vis Exp. 2019 Jul 24(149). doi: 10.3791/59613.
The fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, is widely used both in biological research and biology education. Handling adult flies is common but difficult in practice, as adult flies fly. Demonstrated here is how to make some simple and cost-effective tools to address difficult issues in the handling of Drosophila. Holes in foam stoppers are made and pipette tips or funnels are inserted into the holes. Flies then move only in one direction into the pipette tip/funnel assemblage, allowing efficient control of the transfer of adult Drosophila into or out of a vial. Existing protocols have been modified for cool-anesthetizing flies by chilling in crushed ice and transferring them onto a cold, hard icepack surface. The icepack is covered with a piece of medical gauze that keeps immobilized flies from the condensed water when examined under a stereomicroscope. The flies are finally euthanized for counting and sorting or discarded by microwaving. A bottle-shaped cage has also been developed for collecting eggs, as well as a labor-saving device and accompanying protocol for cleaning glass culture vials.
果蝇,即黑腹果蝇,在生物学研究和生物学教育中都有广泛应用。处理成年果蝇很常见,但在实际操作中却很困难,因为成年果蝇会飞。本文展示了如何制作一些简单且经济高效的工具来解决果蝇处理中的难题。在泡沫塞子上打孔,然后将移液器吸头或漏斗插入孔中。这样果蝇就只能朝一个方向移动到移液器吸头/漏斗组件中,从而能够有效地控制成年果蝇进出小瓶的转移。现有方案已被修改,通过在碎冰中冷却并将果蝇转移到冰冷、坚硬的冰袋表面来进行冷麻醉。冰袋上覆盖一块医用纱布,在体视显微镜下检查时,可防止固定住的果蝇接触到凝结水。最后,果蝇通过微波处理进行安乐死以便计数和分类,或者丢弃。还开发了一种瓶形笼子用于收集卵,以及一种省力的装置和配套方案用于清洁玻璃培养小瓶。