Fly Extract 1 for initiating primary culture (FE1)
1. Procedure as for FE2 but the flies must be at least 75% female. So, collect and freeze flies as above.
2. Tip a spoonful of flies into a glass Petri dish or similar, and sort out 150 nice fat females. Put them in a bijou bottle or other small container. Then add another fifty flies without sorting them. If they look like waking up you can put your sorting dish and containers on a bed of ice.
3. When you have done as many as you can bear, put two lots, i.e. 400 flies, into the homogeniser and squash with 3ml SS3. Tip this into a centrifuge tube and keep on ice. Squash the rest of the flies in similar fashion and add to the centrifuge tube.
4. From now on the procedure is the same as for FE2, except we find 150µl frozen aliquots more convenient. |