Three new Drosophila markers of intracellular membranes

The need for cellular markers that permit a quick and accurate evaluation of a protein's subcellular localization has increased with the surge of new data generated by the Drosophila genome project. In this report, we present three ubiquitously expressed Drosophila transgenes that expressed a green fluorescent protein variant (enhanced yellow fluorescent protein) that has been targeted to different intracellular membrane targets: the Golgi apparatus, mitochondria, and endoplasmic reticulum. These markers serve as an internal standard for characterizing a protein's subcellular localization or as a means of tracking the dynamics of intracellular organelles during normal or abnormal cellular or developmental processes. We have also examined fixation artifacts using these constructs to illustrate the effects that fixation and permeabilization have on intracellular membrane organization.