The DiBio Fly Facility is host to a number of basic line “kits” such as a series of balancers (with morphological and/or GFP markers) for the major chromosomes, as well as transgenic lines such as some of the most commonly employed driver lines used to drive the expression of GAL4 in temporally and/or spatially controlled patterns. In addition we can offer assistance in selecting and ordering, Drosophila mutants, transgenic lines, lines with which to perform RNAi, or any other lines of general utility from external repository services (such as Bloomington, Harvard, VDRC, NIG-Fly Japan). The Fly Facility can provide for the maintenance, under optimal controlled conditions, of “private” Drosophila strains. This may be useful for research groups which possess unique Drosophila strains (i.e. strains which are not available in the standard international stock centers).

The DiBio Fly Facility can rely on: 2 Drosophila CO₂ anaesthesia stations equipped with dissection stereo microscopes; A local computer network with PCs with software dedicated to image analysis and digital data analysis; 3 walk-in thermostatic rooms of which one, constantly kept at 18^o C for the long term maintenance of Drosophila lines, the other two being available for the conduction of experiments under controlled environmental conditions; Modular computerised equipment for the long term acquisition of daily locomotor activity and sleep-wake cycles; High resolution digital videocamera, dedicated computer and specific software for the detailed analyses of Drosophila larval and/or adult behaviour.

The DiBio Fly Facility can provide support/advice in planning and performing experiments which require the use of Drosophila. In particular, requests can be directed to the Facility to prepare specific crosses for the genetic manipulation of Drosophila lines, i.e. for genetic background homogenization; for the reconstitution of binary/ternary systems (i.e. GAL4/UAS, including modulation by GAL80); for the activation of tissue-specific and/or temporally controlled RNAi; for tissue-specific and/or temporally controlled staining of tissues (i.e. GAL4/UAS controlled GFP expression). Aside from the evaluation of numerous behavioural end-points, on request the Fly Facility personnel is open to discuss the possibility of performing experiments which may, for example, require the determination of biochemical parameters (i.e. related to mitochondrial function), genomic-level analyses (i.e. RNA expression profiles), or the setting up of preparations for immuno (cyto- or histo-) chemical analyses.