Dissection and mounting of Drosophila pupal eye discs

Abstract

The Drosophila melanogaster eye disc is a powerful system that can be used to study many different biological processes. It contains approximately 800 separate eye units, termed ommatidia. Each ommatidium contains eight neuronal photoreceptors that develop from undifferentiated cells following the passage of the morphogenetic furrow in the third larval instar. Following the sequential differentiation of the photoreceptors, non-neuronal cells develop, including cone and pigment cells, along with mechanosensory bristle cells. Final differentiation processes, including the structured arrangement of all the ommatidial cell types, programmed cell death of undifferentiated cell types and rhodopsin expression, occurs through the pupal phase. This technique focuses on manipulating the pupal eye disc, providing insight and instruction on how to dissect the eye disc during the pupal phase, which is inherently more difficult to perform than the commonly dissected third instar eye disc. This technique also provides details on immunostaining to allow the visualization of various proteins and other cell components.