Drosophila melanogaster Models of Friedreich’s Ataxia

Figure 3

The GAL4/UAS system, adapted from yeast, involves the use of two transgenic lines in Drosophila [13]. One line carries the GAL4 transcription factor under the control of a promoter of known expression pattern (the driver line), and the other line contains the transgene of interest downstream of UAS (the responder line). Many GAL4 driver lines are available, carrying the promoters of genes such as actin (ubiquitous), elav (pan-neuronal), repo (glial cells), neur (sensory organs), and GMR (eye). This system is very versatile and allows the expression of specific genes or gene constructs to be induced or suppressed. Triangles indicate a wild-type or mutant protein; the hairpins represent double-stranded RNA molecules that mediate RNAi.