BioTechniques (May 2008)

TEV protease-mediated cleavage in Drosophila as a tool to analyze protein functions in living organisms

  • Ben Harder,
  • Adrian Schomburg,
  • Ralf Pflanz,
  • Katharina M. Küstner,
  • Nina Gerlach,
  • Reinhard Schuh

DOI
https://doi.org/10.2144/000112884
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 44, no. 6
pp. 765 – 772

Abstract

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Drosophila provides a powerful experimental system to analyze gene functions in a multi-cellular organism. Here we describe an in vivo method that interferes with the integrity of selected proteins through site-specific cleavage in Drosophila. The technique is based on the highly specific seven-amino-acid recognition site of the tobacco etch virus (TEV) protease. We established transgenic fly lines that direct TEV protease expression in various tissues without affecting fly viability. The insertion of the TEV protease recognition site in defined positions of target proteins mediates their sequence-specific cleavage after controlled TEV protease expression in the fly. Thereby, this technique is a powerful tool that allows the in vivo manipulation of selected proteins in a time- and tissue-specific manner.