M. Hediger et al., Genetic transformation of the housefly Musca domestica with the lepidopteran derived transposon piggyBac, INSEC MOL B, 10(2), 2001, pp. 113-119
The piggyBac transposable element was successfully used for stable genetic
transformation of the housefly Musca domestica, The construct contains the
EGFP marker under the control of Pax-6 binding sites, which can drive eye-s
pecific expression in insect species as distantly related as Drosophila mel
anogaster and Tribolium castaneum [Berghammer, A.J., Klingler, M, and Wimme
r, E.A, (1999) Nature 402: 370-371], We obtained seven independent integrat
ion events among 41 fertile G(o) Musca flies, Most of the transformed lines
contained two or more chromosomal insertions of the EGFP marker which were
stably inherited over more than 15 generations. piggyBac-mediated transpos
ition was verified by Identifying the characteristic TTAA duplication at th
e insertion sites, This first report of stable transmission of a genetic ma
rker in Muses confirms the use of this vector-marker system for effective g
ene transfer in a broad range of insect species.