Culturing Drosophilia

[danscantle]

I've recently heard of a procedure that involves stocking Drosophilia mediums with eggs, as a means of increasing initial production. In all my genetics classes and dealings with Drosophilists I've never heard of this. Are any of you familar with this, it's success, it's likelihood, etc.? It seems rather difficult and not worth the effort, since the eggs are 0.5mm long and take half a day to hatch (in D. melanogaster, anyway).

Anyway, I thought I would post this here in the hopes some frog people can help before I ask the evolutionary genetists at the Univeristy of Texas and the University of Rochester.

 

[Sdaji]

I've spent years in and around fly labs and never heard of such a thing. I can't understand how manually moving the eggs into media could increase production (and even if it worked, egg sorting would seem to be an almost complete waste of labour, and certainly false economy).

With countless zillions of them being produced in countless laboratories all around the world, as well as by other commercial institutions and private individuals the culturing proceedure is very well streamlined and it is difficult to imagine anyone coming up with something revolutionary, but if you find this is the case, please let us know!

 

[Vivarium Concepts]

Can't say I've heard of this before, seems like a lot of work to increase production.
Some people will set up a culture with newly hatched flys, and let them lay for 3 or 4 days, and then transfer the flys to another culture to lay in, so basically you are getting two cultures seeded with eggs from one group of flys.

 

[geckodan]

Hi John, welcome to geckophile. Is there a means of obtaining drosophila cultures and mediums here in Australia. I am attempting to breed some honeyeater species which feed their young exclusively on small flies so it would quite useful (particularly wingless forms). Is anyone using them for small Stroph hatchlings???

 

[Sdaji]

Hi John, welcome to geckophile. Is there a means of obtaining drosophila cultures and mediums here in Australia. I am attempting to breed some honeyeater species which feed their young exclusively on small flies so it would quite useful (particularly wingless forms). Is anyone using them for small Stroph hatchlings???

You can buy cultures from a lot of different biological supply companies. You can also buy commercially made culturing media, but you're probably better off making your own. It's easy to make, there are lots of variations, but they're usually based on potato, yeast and sugar, or similar ingredients. You can also add mould inhibitors etc. Off the top of my head I can't recall hearing about anyone using them for Strophrurus and although I'm sure they'd work well, you'd probably find it easier to use crickets. We used Drosophila for hatchling Heteronotia because the fly lab was in the adjacent building and it was so convenient. If you're breeding zillions of Drosophila for your feathery things, they'd probably be worth a try for the geckoes. I'd personally hate to be mucking around feeding the flying variety to animals!

 

[geckodan]

Hi John, welcome to geckophile. Is there a means of obtaining drosophila cultures and mediums here in Australia. I am attempting to breed some honeyeater species which feed their young exclusively on small flies so it would quite useful (particularly wingless forms). Is anyone using them for small Stroph hatchlings???

You can buy cultures from a lot of different biological supply companies. You can also buy commercially made culturing media, but you're probably better off making your own. It's easy to make, there are lots of variations, but they're usually based on potato, yeast and sugar, or similar ingredients. You can also add mould inhibitors etc. Off the top of my head I can't recall hearing about anyone using them for Strophrurus and although I'm sure they'd work well, you'd probably find it easier to use crickets. We used Drosophila for hatchling Heteronotia because the fly lab was in the adjacent building and it was so convenient. If you're breeding zillions of Drosophila for your feathery things, they'd probably be worth a try for the geckoes. I'd personally hate to be mucking around feeding the flying variety to animals!

Where can I buy wingless breeders from?? Can you source them down there?

 

[Sdaji]

Wingless Drosophila aren't terribly difficult to source. Heaps of labs maintain cultures of them, but I suppose they don't advertise them so sourcing them might be a little tricky if you don't know anyone working in a fly lab. I used to get mine either from work or from a friend who works in a local lab, but neither supplied the public and I no longer work at the lab and haven't visited my fly friend for a while now. I remember my friend at the local lab running out a few times and sometimes having trouble with the suppliers not having any. I really should catch up with my friend at the local lab, thanks for the reminder! I'll ask him for contacts and let you know. If I forget (which realistically is likely! ) send me an email/PM prodding me in a week or two.