Clonal analysis of olfaction in Drosophila: immunochemistry and imaging of fly brains.

Clonal analysis with the MARCM (mosaic analysis with a repressible cell marker) system can be used for studying cell lineage, development, and anatomy in the Drosophila olfactory system and other parts of the fly brain. This protocol describes the dissection, staining, and imaging of brains from Drosophila with mosaic labeling. Staining for the presynaptic marker Bruchpilot (nc82) is performed in the example given here. The well-stained whole brain images that are obtained can be used to examine neuronal morphology. They are of sufficient quality to be used for image registration, which allows one to compare confocal images of labeled neurons in different brains.