Transgenic tools for Drosophila muscle research.

One of the advantages of using Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism is our knowledge of its genetics combined with its genetic versatility. Over the years, a range of transgenic tools have been developed that allow easy genetic manipulation such as the generation of novel mutants and the use of fusion proteins and protein traps. This work discusses examples of the above, and describes systems like GAL4-UAS and RNAi, before highlighting the importance and advantage of the indirect flight muscle as a model for muscle research.