Drosophila melanogaster imaginal discs are larval internal structures that become the external organs of the adult. They have been used to study numerous developmental processes for more than fifty years. Dissecting these imaginal discs for collection is challenging, as the size of third-instar larvae organs is typically less than 1 mm. Certain experimental applications of the organs require many cells, which requires researchers to spend several hours dissecting them. This paper proposes an alternative to dissection in the form of a mass enrichment protocol. The protocol enables the recovery of many wing imaginal discs by grinding large quantities of third-instar larvae and separating the organs using filtration and a density gradient. The wing imaginal discs collected with this protocol in less than three hours are as well preserved as those collected by dissection. The dissociation and filtration of the extract allow the isolation of a large amount of wing imaginal disc cells.
Keywords: Drosophila melanogaster; density gradient; isolation; larva; mass purification; wing imaginal discs.