A simple and efficient method of inducing targeted deletions in the drosophila genome

Deletion mutagenesis is one of the most efficient approaches to studying gene function. However, conventional methods of inducing targeted mutations in the drosophila genome are timeand labor-consuming. This work proposes a new, simple, and effective method of producing drosophila mutants with gene deletions. The method involves the insertion of I-SceI and I-CreI recognition sites and a fragment homologous to the target sequence into the chromosome region of interest by means of an attB-containing construct, the induction of double-strand DNA breaks by the appropriate meganuclease, and their repair by homologous recombination. The procedure results in a deletion extending from the attP-site to the target locus. A cassette was designed to enable single-step construct production for the deletion of any given genomic region. A set of markers facilitates the selection of recombination events. The efficacy of the proposed technique was confirmed by the induction of a 47-kb deletion containing the qtc gene.