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Simple Histochemical Methods to Detect Cell Death in the Eye-Antennae Imaginal Disc of Drosophila

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Fundamental Approaches to Screen Abnormalities in Drosophila

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Abstract

During early time point of development, a large number of cells are produced. As development progresses, many cells die to shape the body in its right form. Drosophila melanogaster has been extensively used to study various developmental mechanisms including cell death. It is an evolutionarily conserved mechanism needed for the cellular growth, development and maintenance of the organism. During development, cell death is initiated as an action of internal clock present within the body, but still many external factors can alter the time and frequency of cell death. The nucleic acids present within the body reflect the physiological condition of an organism. Various fluorescent dyes can detect the nucleic acid damage and ultimately the dead cells. Dyes that are commonly used to stain nucleic acid include acridine orange, propidium iodide, Hoechst and DAPI. All these dyes bind to the nuclei acid, and thus the live or dead stage of the cell can be visualized under a fluorescent microscope. The current study describes the staining techniques of all the four dyes in various Drosophila tissues.

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Abbreviations

AO:

Acridine orange

DAPI:

4′, 6-diamidino-2-phenylindole

PBS:

Phosphate buffer saline

PBST:

Phosphate buffer saline with Tween-20

PFA:

Paraformaldehyde

PI:

Propidium iodide

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Acknowledgements

SS is thankful to DST/INSPIRE Fellowship/2016/IF160247 for financial support. MM lab is supported by Grant No. BT/PR21857/NNT/28/1238/2017, EMR/2017/003054, Odisha DBT 3325/ST(BIO)-02/2017.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Neural Developmental Biology Lab, Department of Life Science, National Institute of Technology Rourkela, Rourkela, Odisha, India

    Swetapadma Sahu & Monalisa Mishra

Authors
  1. Swetapadma Sahu
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  2. Monalisa Mishra
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Monalisa Mishra .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Neural Developmental Biology Lab, Department of Life Science, National Institute of Technology Rourkela, Rourkela, Odisha, India

    Monalisa Mishra

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Sahu, S., Mishra, M. (2020). Simple Histochemical Methods to Detect Cell Death in the Eye-Antennae Imaginal Disc of Drosophila. In: Mishra, M. (eds) Fundamental Approaches to Screen Abnormalities in Drosophila. Springer Protocols Handbooks. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-9756-5_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-9756-5_7

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-9755-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-9756-5

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