GAL4/UAS system

An example GAL4-UAS system, with GAL4 lines and UAS reporter lines.

The GAL4-UAS system is a biochemical method used to study gene expression and function in organisms such as the fruit fly. It is based on the finding by Hitoshi Kakidani and Mark Ptashne,[1] and Nicholas Webster and Pierre Chambon[2] in 1988 that Gal4 binding to UAS sequences activates gene expression. The method was introduced into flies by Andrea Brand and Norbert Perrimon in 1993[3] and is considered a powerful technique for studying the expression of genes.[4] The system has two parts: the Gal4 gene, encoding the yeast transcription activator protein Gal4, and the UAS (Upstream Activation Sequence), an enhancer to which GAL4 specifically binds to activate gene transcription.

  1. ^ Kakidani, Hitoshi; Ptashne, Mark (1988). "GAL4 activates gene expression in mammalian cells". Cell. 52 (2): 161–167. doi:10.1016/0092-8674(88)90504-1. PMID 2830021. S2CID 9524012.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Brand, A. H.; Perrimon, N. (1993). "Targeted gene expression as a means of altering cell fates and generating dominant phenotypes". Development. 118 (2): 401–415. doi:10.1242/dev.118.2.401. PMID 8223268.
  4. ^ Duffy, J. B. (2002). "GAL4 system in Drosophila: A fly geneticist's Swiss army knife". Genesis. 34 (1–2): 1–15. doi:10.1002/gene.10150. PMID 12324939. S2CID 5073328.