Studying how flies make sperm—Investigating gene function in Drosophila testes

The majority of the audience at the European Testis Workshop were actively researching mammalian spermatogenesis or sperm function. In this paper therefore I follow the brief I had for my contribution to the meeting in the session “non-mammalian models of spermatogenesis”, which was to explain practical approaches to research in Drosophila spermatogenesis, illuminating how what we learn in model organisms can be relevant to male fertility research in mammals. I discuss techniques and resources available to fly spermatogenesis researchers, and indicate how I have applied them in my lab to understand regulation of gene expression in spermatogenesis.