GENETIC-TRANSFORMATION OF DROSOPHILA CELLS IN CULTURE BY P-ELEMENT-MEDIATED TRANSPOSITION

We report that cells of a Drosophila embryonic cell line (Kc167 cells) can be readily and stably transformed by transposition of P elements from exogenous DNA, Cells are transfected with plasmids carrying metho trexate- or alpha-amanitin-resistance markers expressed from constitut ive promoters and co-transfected with a gene encoding a somatically ac tive transposase. Transient expression of the transposase leads to eff icient production of transformed resistant cells. We describe conditio ns under which most resistant clones are healthy and harbor a small nu mber (1-50) of transposons and few (less than or equal to 5%) retain p lasmid sequences derived from illegitimate recombination, Using condit ions like these it should prove possible to construct enhancer trap an d/or gene libraries using Drosophila cells.