Genome-wide RNAi as a route to gene function in Drosophila

With the sequencing of the human genome and the genomes of most major model organisms completed, the systematic characterisation of gene functions remains a key challenge. During the past few years, RNA interference (RNAi) has become a powerful tool to silence the expression of genes and analyse their loss-of-function phenotype when mutant alleles are not available. Genome-wide RNAi screens against all predicted genes have been successfully used to dissect a variety of biological processes in Caenorhabditis elegans. Recently, a genome-wide library of double-stranded RNAs, that target every gene in the Drosophila genome and that is suitable for high throughput cell-based assays, was published. In this paper, recent advances will be summarised. Screening strategies and applications as a route to comprehensively characterising gene function will be discussed.