Drosophila Information

What are Drosophila?

Drosophila is a genus of flies, belonging to the family Drosophilidae. Drosophila melanogaster is the most used in research and are often called fruit flies due to their propensity to be found near unripe and rotted fruit.

Why keep Drosophila?

Drosophila are truly fascinating insects, for example did you know that:

• About 75% of human disease genes have a recognisable match in fruit flies?
• Drosophila can learn and be made smarter?
• They are ideal for the study of genetics, their compete genome was sequenced in 2000?
• Drosophila can get drunk and addicted to alcohol, so are used in addiction research?
• They are used in sleep research? - Coffee keeps them awake, and old flies sleep less
• Flies experience jet lag and in the Mediterranean naturally take a siesta!?
• Flies were the first ever organisms that reached space in 1947 and returned safely?

What should you do when your Drosophila arrive?

Upon receipt, carefully unwrap the tubes from the tissue and check.

It is not uncommon for some adult flies to die during transit, it is for this reason we always send 33 flies in our tubes of 30 segregated flies. Cultures will contain even more as well as plenty of eggs.

How do you store Drosophila?

Keep the flies at around 18-25°C, varying the temperature will speed up/slow down the lifecycle. At 24°C, the it takes 12-14 days.

When are Drosophila orders sent?

We make up all our fresh media on a Thursday, segregated flies (i.e. 'males' or 'virgin females') are sexed on a Friday and dispatched on a Monday. Mixed cultures are usually sent on a Monday, but we can usually accommodate other dispatch dates provided we have media made up ready.

If you need your flies for a specific date, please advise at time of ordering.

How quickly do I need to 'use' the flies?

As Drosophila are sent in tubes containing media, they have enough food for a few weeks, we do however advise you sub-culture onto fresh media within 2 weeks.

Segregated flies should be used as soon as possible whilst still young and virile. Older flies will 

How to make Drosophila media?

Drosophila media is simple to make, although for ease and speed ready-made media tubes can be purchased as well as instant media. The below recipe makes around 40-50 tubes.

Drosophila Media Recipe: (Adapted from Cambridge Fly Facility) Makes 50 large tubes, or 200 small tubes, can be scaled up/down to suit requirements.

• 39g Yeast
• 19g Agar
• 135g Maize/Polenta
• 157g Glucose
• 2000g Water
• 52ml Methyl Paraben (Nipagin) Solution (1g per 10ml of 95% alcohol)

Adapted Drosophila Media Recipe: (Using more 'household' ingredients)

• 9g Yeast
• 4.5g Agar
• 43g Maize/Polenta/Oatmeal
• 40g Golden Syrup/Treacle
• 520g Water
• 12ml Methyl Paraben (Nipagin) Solution (1g per 10ml of 95% alcohol)

Mix the dry ingredients, then add the water and mix again. Simmer for around 5 minutes until cooked, stirring regularly. Remove from the heat, allow to cool a little then add the Nipagin solution. Decant into specimen tubes whilst 'hand hot' (approx. 50°C) then allow to cool.

Once cool, if not using immediately, plug with a plastic stopper and refrigerate, use within 1 week. Before adding flies, dry any condensation and plug with either a cotton wool stopper or foam bung.

Where are Darwin Biological's Drosophila sourced from?

All our Drosophila are bred in our Shropshire Fly Lab from mother cultures supplied by the Bloomington Drosophila Stock Centre (BDSC) based at the University of Indiana. The mother cultures have the following references:

• Wild Type 2376 - Oregon-R-P2
• White Eye 145 - w[1]
• Vestigial Wing 432 - vg[1]
• Ebony Body 1658 - e[1]
• Scarlet Eye 605 - st[1] 
  

References:

Manchester Fly Facility has some great resources for schools, the fly facts in this blog have been sourced from: http://www.flyfacility.manchester.ac.uk & https://droso4public.wordpress.com/