TY - JOUR
T1 - Loss of the putative RNA-directed RNA polymerase RRF-3 makes C. Elegans hypersensitive to RNAi
AU - Simmer, Femke
AU - Tijsterman, Marcel
AU - Parrish, Susan
AU - Koushika, Sandhya P.
AU - Nonet, Michael L.
AU - Fire, Andrew
AU - Ahringer, Julie
AU - Plasterk, Ronald H.A.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the Dutch Science Foundation (F.S.: NOW-CW97045) and the National Institutes of Health (S.P.: GM37706) for support.
PY - 2002/8/6
Y1 - 2002/8/6
N2 - RNA interference (RNAi) is a broadly used reverse genetics method in C. elegans [1]. Unfortunately, RNAi does not inhibit all genes [2, 3]. We show that loss of function of a putative RNA-directed RNA polymerase (RdRP) of C. elegans, RRF-3, results in a substantial enhancement of sensitivity to RNAi in diverse tissues. This is particularly striking in the nervous system; neurons that are generally refractory to RNAi in a wildtype genetic background can respond effectively to interference in an rrf-3 mutant background. These data provide the first indication of physiological negative modulation of the RNAi response and implicate an RdRP-related factor in this effect. The rrf-3 strain can be useful to study genes that, in wild-type, do not show a phenotype after RNAi, and it is probably the strain of choice for genome-wide RNAi screens.
AB - RNA interference (RNAi) is a broadly used reverse genetics method in C. elegans [1]. Unfortunately, RNAi does not inhibit all genes [2, 3]. We show that loss of function of a putative RNA-directed RNA polymerase (RdRP) of C. elegans, RRF-3, results in a substantial enhancement of sensitivity to RNAi in diverse tissues. This is particularly striking in the nervous system; neurons that are generally refractory to RNAi in a wildtype genetic background can respond effectively to interference in an rrf-3 mutant background. These data provide the first indication of physiological negative modulation of the RNAi response and implicate an RdRP-related factor in this effect. The rrf-3 strain can be useful to study genes that, in wild-type, do not show a phenotype after RNAi, and it is probably the strain of choice for genome-wide RNAi screens.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0037031152&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/S0960-9822(02)01041-2
DO - 10.1016/S0960-9822(02)01041-2
M3 - Article
C2 - 12176360
AN - SCOPUS:0037031152
SN - 0960-9822
VL - 12
SP - 1317
EP - 1319
JO - Current Biology
JF - Current Biology
IS - 15
ER -