Drosophila stocks, food and equipment

 Drosophila stock collections

All main stocks (>5000 individual lines) of Drosophila melanogaster are housed within a 18⁰C/70%RH controlled room with a remote wireless monitoring and alarm service.  The individual lab stock collections are maintained by dedicated support staff.  These fly stocks are kept in triplicate and flies tipped onto new growth media every 2 weeks. 

Staff also ensure all stocks are correctly labelled with both the stock number and genotype of each fly culture. Any flies that are obtained from sources outside the laboratory are quarantined before bringing them into the fly lab to make sure they are not carrying anything that could spread to other stocks. 

All Drosophila cultures are allowed to go through 2 generations and be checked for mites before being brought into the main fly lab or culture rooms.  More information about how to quarantine stocks and ensure they are mite-free before entering these areas can be found in Information.

Fly food

The large-scale production of nutrient rich culture media is prepared in a specialist media maker.  This allows up to 40 litres per batch to be prepared twice weekly to the recipe below.

Technical support is provided for fly food preparation including training staff from other departments within the Faculty of Science.

Fly food is available as follows:

• Stock vials (ST) - larger volume of fly food labelled ST.
• ICRF bottles with cotton wool bungs – use these for all stocks kept in bottles in the 18°C culture room.
• Straight sided bottles with foam bungs - Do not use straight sided bottles in the 18°C culture room. This is to prevent mites getting into the stock collections.  Straight sided bottles can be used in the main fly room at 19°C and the 25°C

Fly Food Recipe

Apple juice plates are available in 60mm, 90mm and 100mm sizes for fly laying cages.

Equipment

A large temperature controlled main laboratory maintained at 19⁰C houses 22 fly stations with dissection microscopes, each equipped with fly pads and piped CO₂ for the temporary anaesthetisation of flies. This allows flies to be identified and sorted for experimental work.

Fly cultures for experimental work can be housed in a 25⁰C/70%RH culture room with a remote wireless monitoring and alarm service.  Additional incubators set at a variety of temperatures are also available for experimental work as needed.

An injection microscope is situated within the facility and available for fly researchers.