A genetic multicolor cell-labeling technique for Droshophila melanogaster, Flybow, is described and applied to the study of neural circuits. This method implements a variant of the mouse Brainbow strategy in combination with specific neuronal targeting using the Gal-4–upstream activating sequence system to select for membrane-tethered fluorescent proteins. Also in this issue, Hampel et al. report a similar strategy, Drosophila Brainbow, to select for epitope-tagged proteins detectable via immunofluorescence.
Flybow: genetic multicolor cell labeling for neural circuit analysis in Drosophila melanogaster