Mosaic Analysis with a Repressible Cell Marker (MARCM) Clone Generation in Drosophila Dendritic Arborization Neurons

Mosaic analysis with a repressible cell marker (MARCM) is used in Drosophila research to create labeled homozygous mutant clones of cells in an otherwise heterozygous fly. It allows the study of the effect of embryonically lethal genes and the determination of cell autonomy for a mutant phenotype. When used in dendritic arborization (da) neurons with a fluorescent protein targeted to the plasma membrane, MARCM allows the identification of homozygous mutant neurons and clear imaging of the dendrite arbor in both live and fixed preparations. Previous protocols that outlined experimental procedures to create MARCM clones in da neurons used a heat shock promoter to drive Flippase (FLP) expression; such an approach requires laborious embryo collection and heat shock steps, and it creates clones in other tissues besides the da neurons. The updated protocol described here outlines the use of FLP expression driven by a sensory organ precursor promoter (SOP-FLP); it requires no embryo collection or manipulation steps and creates clones exclusively in the peripheral sensory neuron lineage.