Open AccessA modified feeding RNAi method for simultaneous knock-down of more than one gene in Caenorhabditis elegans
Author(s) -
Kyoengwoo Min,
Junsu Kang,
Jun-Ho Lee
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
biotechniques/biotechniques
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.617
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1940-9818
pISSN - 0736-6205
DOI - 10.2144/000113365
Subject(s) - rna interference , caenorhabditis elegans , biology , gene , phenotype , genetics , rna silencing , gene silencing , reverse genetics , genome , rna
RNA interference (RNAi) is a commonly used technique for reverse genetic approaches in Caenorhabditis elegans. Feeding RNAi is the most convenient and inexpensive method for performing genome-wide RNAi screens. However, it has been reported that knock-down of two genes (double RNAi) by feeding RNAi using a mixture of bacteria that each contained one dsRNA species produced poor results. To overcome this problem of inefficiency, we designed and tested a double feeding RNAi method using a single RNAi construct containing two gene fragments. From experiments with three different sets of genes, we found that the new double RNAi method consistently produced significantly enhanced double knock-down phenotypes. The double feeding RNAi approach described here provides a method to consistently examine phenotypes caused by depletion of more than one gene in C. elegans.