Bassett, A.R., Tibbit, C., Ponting, C.P., Liu, J.L. (2013). Highly Efficient Targeted Mutagenesis of Drosophila with the CRISPR/Cas9 System.  Cell Rep. 4(1): 220--228.

FBrf0222128

Research paper

Here, we present a simple and highly efficient method for generating and detecting mutations of any gene in Drosophila melanogaster through the use of the CRISPR/Cas9 system (clustered regularly interspaced palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated). We show that injection of RNA into the Drosophila embryo can induce highly efficient mutagenesis of desired target genes in up to 88% of injected flies. These mutations can be transmitted through the germline to make stable lines. Our system provides at least a 10-fold improvement in efficiency over previously published reports, enabling wider application of this technique. We also describe a simple and highly sensitive method of detecting mutations in the target gene by high-resolution melt analysis and discuss how the new technology enables the study of gene function.

PMC3714591 (PMC) (EuropePMC)