Figure 1

Inactivation of lin-35 or lin-15B enhances RNAi. (a) The number of genes with enhanced RNAi phenotypes in the worm strains lin-35(n745), lin-15B(n744), eri-1(mg366) and rrf-3(pk1426). The chart shows the number of genes with RNAi phenotypes that are significantly stronger in each strain than in wild-type (Bristol N2) worms. A total of 1,838 bacterial RNAi feeding strains from the Ahringer library [4] targeting 1,749 genes were tested with each worm strain. (b-f) RNAi-induced silencing of lin-35 or lin-15B enhances the dsRNA-induced silencing of a GFP transgene. Worm strain GR1401 expresses an integrated GFP transgene and a dsRNA that targets GFP mRNA for degradation, both expressed specifically in the hypodermal seam cells of the worm (arrows) [9]. (b) Control experiments used a feeding strain that does not target any C. elegans gene and causes no change in the silencing of GFP. dsRNA targeting components of the RNAi machinery such as (c) rde-4 suppress the silencing of GFP, whereas dsRNAs targeting (d) eri-1, (e) lin-35 or (f) lin-15B result in enhanced silencing of GFP. See Table 2 for quantification of this data.