Customer Reviews

Drosophila: A Practical Approach (The Practical Approach Series)

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This is a very good book, and contains useful protocols. For those of us who remember the first edition, it was heavily biased in favour of genetics. So is the second edition, in spite of the fact that Drosophila is being used more and more for studies in cytology, physiology and biochemistry. Nevertheless, this book is indispensible for those interested in doing classical genetics with Drosophila. It explains how to maintain flies, how to do basic crosses and ballance chromosomes, and how to do P-element induced mutations. There is also a section of how to extract and manipulate nucleic acids from flies, and a very brief (but interesting section) on fly BEHAVIOR and genetic studies of fly behavior. I found this interesting since many researchers have been turning to Drosophila as a model organism in learning and behavior (including addiction and substance abuse) studies in recent years. Several things are noticably lacking from this book however. A section on polytene chromosomes is conspicuously absent, in spite of the fact that this is one of the main tools of Drosophilists. The inclusion of several sections on fly cytology would definitely have been useful, such as PISH (polytene in situ hybridization), and other methods for locating gene products in fly cells. A section on microinjection and transformation of fly embryos would have been useful too. The basic theoretical information is there, but the technique is not dealt with specifically, and no protocols are given. The P-element enhancer trap system is dealt with briefly, but could have been expanded more. For those interested in the fruitfly as a model organism in cytology and molecular biology I would recommend 'Drosophila melanogaster: Practical Uses in Cell and Molecular Biology,' from the 'Methods in Cell Biology' series (Volume 44). This is a good book although it too could use more detailed protocols. Unfortunately this book is out of print, so it is hard to comeby! Alternatively, the 'Cold Spring Harbour Press' is due to come out with 'Drosophila Protocols' in the Spring of 2000. I have seen the putative table of contents, and it looks like this may be a very comprehensive book, and I'll make sure to have a look at it as soon as it is published. Greg Doheny (Vancouver B.C.)