R. Svirskas - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by R. Svirskas

Genome Research, 2015

Drosophila melanogaster plays an important role in molecular, genetic, and genomic studies of her... more Drosophila melanogaster plays an important role in molecular, genetic, and genomic studies of heredity, development, metabolism, behavior, and human disease. The initial reference genome sequence reported more than a decade ago had a profound impact on progress in Drosophila research, and improving the accuracy and completeness of this sequence continues to be important to further progress. We previously described improvement of the 117-Mb sequence in the euchromatic portion of the genome and 21 Mb in the heterochromatic portion, using a whole-genome shotgun assembly, BAC physical mapping, and clone-based finishing. Here, we report an improved reference sequence of the single-copy and middle-repetitive regions of the genome, produced using cytogenetic mapping to mitotic and polytene chromosomes, clone-based finishing and BAC fingerprint verification, ordering of scaffolds by alignment to cDNA sequences, incorporation of other map and sequence data, and validation by whole-genome optical restriction mapping. These data substantially improve the accuracy and completeness of the reference sequence and the order and orientation of sequence scaffolds into chromosome arm assemblies. Representation of the Y chromosome and other heterochromatic regions is particularly improved. The new 143.9-Mb reference sequence, designated Release 6, effectively exhausts clone-based technologies for mapping and sequencing. Highly repeat-rich regions, including large satellite blocks and functional elements such as the ribosomal RNA genes and the centromeres, are largely inaccessible to current sequencing and assembly methods and remain poorly represented. Further significant improvements will require sequencing technologies that do not depend on molecular cloning and that produce very long reads.

Nature Protocols, 2006

Libraries of cDNA clones are valuable resources for analysing the expression, structure, and regu... more Libraries of cDNA clones are valuable resources for analysing the expression, structure, and regulation of genes, as well as for studying protein functions and interactions. Full-length cDNA clones provide information about intron and exon structures, splice junctions and 5'-and 3'untranslated regions (UTRs). Open reading frames (ORFs) derived from cDNA clones can be used to generate constructs allowing expression of native proteins and N-or C-terminally tagged proteins. Thus, obtaining full-length cDNA clones and sequences for most or all genes in an organism is critical for understanding genome functions. Expressed sequence tag (EST) sequencing samples cDNA libraries at random, which is most useful at the beginning of largescale screening projects. However, as projects progress towards completion, the probability of identifying unique cDNAs via EST sequencing diminishes, resulting in poor recovery of rare transcripts. We describe an adapted, high-throughput protocol intended for recovery of specific, full-length clones from plasmid cDNA libraries in five days.

Genome biology, 2002

Transposable elements are found in the genomes of nearly all eukaryotes. The recent completion of... more Transposable elements are found in the genomes of nearly all eukaryotes. The recent completion of the Release 3 euchromatic genomic sequence of Drosophila melanogaster by the Berkeley Drosophila Genome Project has provided precise sequence for the repetitive elements in the Drosophila euchromatin. We have used this genomic sequence to describe the euchromatic transposable elements in the sequenced strain of this species. We identified 85 known and eight novel families of transposable element varying in copy number from one to 146. A total of 1,572 full and partial transposable elements were identified, comprising 3.86% of the sequence. More than two-thirds of the transposable elements are partial. The density of transposable elements increases an average of 4.7 times in the centromere-proximal regions of each of the major chromosome arms. We found that transposable elements are preferentially found outside genes; only 436 of 1,572 transposable elements are contained within the 61.4 ...

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2008

We demonstrate the feasibility of generating thousands of transgenic Drosophila melanogaster line... more We demonstrate the feasibility of generating thousands of transgenic Drosophila melanogaster lines in which the expression of an exogenous gene is reproducibly directed to distinct small subsets of cells in the adult brain. We expect the expression patterns produced by the collection of 5,000 lines that we are currently generating to encompass all neurons in the brain in a variety of intersecting patterns. Overlapping 3-kb DNA fragments from the flanking noncoding and intronic regions of genes thought to have patterned expression in the adult brain were inserted into a defined genomic location by site-specific recombination. These fragments were then assayed for their ability to function as transcriptional enhancers in conjunction with a synthetic core promoter designed to work with a wide variety of enhancer types. An analysis of 44 fragments from four genes found that >80% drive expression patterns in the brain; the observed patterns were, on average, comprised of <100 cells. Our results suggest that the D. melanogaster genome contains >50,000 enhancers and that multiple enhancers drive distinct subsets of expression of a gene in each tissue and developmental stage. We expect that these lines will be valuable tools for neuroanatomy as well as for the elucidation of neuronal circuits and information flow in the fly brain.

Cell reports, Jan 25, 2012

We established a collection of 7,000 transgenic lines of Drosophila melanogaster. Expression of G... more We established a collection of 7,000 transgenic lines of Drosophila melanogaster. Expression of GAL4 in each line is controlled by a different, defined fragment of genomic DNA that serves as a transcriptional enhancer. We used confocal microscopy of dissected nervous systems to determine the expression patterns driven by each fragment in the adult brain and ventral nerve cord. We present image data on 6,650 lines. Using both manual and machine-assisted annotation, we describe the expression patterns in the most useful lines. We illustrate the utility of these data for identifying novel neuronal cell types, revealing brain asymmetry, and describing the nature and extent of neuronal shape stereotypy. The GAL4 lines allow expression of exogenous genes in distinct, small subsets of the adult nervous system. The set of DNA fragments, each driving a documented expression pattern, will facilitate the generation of additional constructs for manipulating neuronal function.

by C. Mobarry, S. Lewis, N. Harris, C. Kraft, A. Glodek, Panayiotis Benos, J. Baxendale, R. Ballew, R. Svirskas, X. Lin, S. Williams, S. Kravitz, and Steve Mount