Rapid identification of heterozygous mutations in Drosophila melanogaster using genomic capture sequencing

Genome Res. 2010 Jul;20(7):981-8. doi: 10.1101/gr.102921.109. Epub 2010 May 14.

Abstract

One of the key advantages of using Drosophila melanogaster as a genetic model organism is the ability to conduct saturation mutagenesis screens to identify genes and pathways underlying a given phenotype. Despite the large number of genetic tools developed to facilitate downstream cloning of mutations obtained from such screens, the current procedure remains labor intensive, time consuming, and costly. To address this issue, we designed an efficient strategy for rapid identification of heterozygous mutations in the fly genome by combining rough genetic mapping, targeted DNA capture, and second generation sequencing technology. We first tested this method on heterozygous flies carrying either a previously characterized dac(5) or sens(E2) mutation. Targeted amplification of genomic regions near these two loci was used to enrich DNA for sequencing, and both point mutations were successfully identified. When this method was applied to uncharacterized twr mutant flies, the underlying mutation was identified as a single-base mutation in the gene Spase18-21. This targeted-genome-sequencing method reduces time and effort required for mutation cloning by up to 80% compared with the current approach and lowers the cost to <$1000 for each mutant. Introduction of this and other sequencing-based methods for mutation cloning will enable broader usage of forward genetics screens and have significant impacts in the field of model organisms such as Drosophila.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Evaluation Study
  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Animals, Genetically Modified
  • Base Sequence
  • Cost-Benefit Analysis
  • DNA Mutational Analysis / economics
  • DNA Mutational Analysis / methods*
  • Drosophila melanogaster / genetics*
  • Genetic Carrier Screening / methods*
  • Genome, Insect
  • Heterozygote
  • Models, Biological
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Point Mutation*
  • Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
  • Time Factors