A 2139 base pair fragment from the flanking non-coding or intronic region of nub is fused upstream of a Drosophila core synthetic promoter (DSCP) followed by sequence encoding a lexA::p65 driver. The driver sequence has been optimized for Drosophila codon usage. An Hsp70 transcriptional terminator is present.
Optogenetic activation (using Cnoc\ChR1::Csub\ChRCsChrimson.IVS.13XLexAop2.Venus with 625 nm (red) light) of Ecol\lexAGMR78A01 cells in larvae results in contractions without rolling in the absence of pain stimuli, this is not seen in controls.
Although alleles from the Janelia Farm lexA driver collection incorporate the same enhancer fragments used to create the Janelia Farm GAL4 driver alleles (GMR_Brain_exp_1), significant differences are frequently observed in the expression pattern of a given enhancer fragment inserted in the P{CaryP}attP40 or other docking site compared to the same fragment inserted in the P{CaryP}attP2 docking site. Generally the Ecol\lexA patterns are subsets of the Scer\GAL4 patterns.