Cancer Biology Commons^™

Oncogene Characterization And Mapping, John Evans

Summer Research

New oncogenes can be uncovered using the UAS/GAL4 system in the model organism Drosophila Melanogaster. P-elements allow both UAS and GAL4 to insert into the genome of parental flies. When crossed, both UAS/GAL4 are transferred to the progeny and express both sequence and protein that result in cancerous phenotypes that are easily identifiable using light microscopy. Inverse PCR, sequence analysis and comparison to online databases, e.g. flybase.org, provides simple identification of the culprit gene.