Salivary Chromosome Analysis of Aberrations

Even with the advent of sequenced genomes, the ability to locate aberration breakpoints onto the salivary chromosome map remains one of the singular strengths of Drosophila as a research organism. Salivary chromosome analysis is not difficult, yet many people are reluctant to attempt to do it: and if they do begin they may flounder for lack of a clear idea of what they should be trying to do. I hope this chapter will both encourage more people to try and also make the learning easier. Once mastered, doing salivary cytology is fun and rewarding: and you will never again have your research set back 6 mo because the “deficiency” stock someone sent you was not what it was supposed to be; as a matter of course you will have checked it out first!