Vectors for efficient and high-throughput construction of fluorescent drosophila reporters using the PhiC31 site-specific integration system

The fruit fly Drosophila is a leading model system for the study of transcriptional control by cis‐regulatory elements or enhancers. Here, we present a rapid and highly efficient system for the large‐scale analysis of enhancer elements, site‐specifically integrated into the Drosophila genome. This system, which is scalable for either small projects or high‐throughput approaches, makes use of the Gateway cloning technology and the PhiC31 site‐specific integration system, which allows the insertion of constructs at predetermined genomic locations. Thus, this system allows not only a fast and easy analysis of reporter gene expression in live animals, but also the simultaneous analysis of different regulatory outputs on a cellular resolution by recombining in the same animal distinct enhancer elements fused to different fluorescent proteins. genesis 48:452–456, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.