Cell Lines

The most commonly used Drosophila cell line is probably the Schneider 2 (S2) cell line, which was derived from embryos.

But there are many other options. Choice of cells will affect:

• Your assay, as different lineages are appropriate for different biological assays
• Your protocol, as many cells take up dsRNA in solution (bathing method) but others require the addition of a transfection agent for efficient up-take
• Your results, as different cells express different sub-sets of genes.

Keep in mind that it's possible to customize an existing cell line with one or more transgenic construct (via transient transfection or production of a stable cell line). This is useful to monitor transcriptional activation, to track the sub-cellular localization of a tagged protein, and more.

Need Cells?

Researchers who would like to obtain cells from the DRSC's collection in advance of a screen should contact the Director. We have these cell lines available for screening: S2, S2R+, Clone 8, Kc. Please be aware that one lab's "S2" may not be identical to another lab's "S2" cells (and so on - this is true for any cell line). We encourage researchers to get a sample of our cells for assay development. This helps cross-experiment analysis, including analysis of RNAi screen datasets here at the DRSC and cell line data generated as part of the modENCODE project (which used cells from the DRSC).

The Drosophila Genomics Resource Center (DGRC) in Bloomington maintains and distributes several Drosophila cell lines, in addition to posting protocols.

Flybase has a list of resources for cells, other materials and more.

This paper (see Table 1) has useful information about cell line karyotypes.

Williams BR, Bateman JR, Novikov ND, Wu CT. Disruption of topoisomerase II perturbs pairing in drosophila cell culture. Genetics. 2007 Sep;177(1):31-46.