Combinatorial RNA interference in Caenorhabditis elegans reveals that redundancy between gene duplicates can be maintained for more than 80 million years of evolution

Table 2 Combinatorial RNAi can identify known synthetic lethal interactions

Strain	Interaction Gene1 + Gene 2	Gene1		Gene2		Gene1 + 2		Syn	p value
		BS	ES	BS	ES	BS	ES		BS	ES
Wild-type	mec-8 + sym-1	88	99	82	98	78	92	Yes	5.5 × 10^-01	1.3 × 10^-02
	sop-3 + sop-1	91	100	94	99	79	90	Yes	2.8 × 10^-01	8.5 × 10^-04
	tbx-8 + tbx-9	83	99	78	97	52	11	Yes	7.3 × 10^-02	1.4 × 10^-24
	hlh-1 + unc-120	91	99	76	99	28	91	Yes	5.2 × 10^-05	1.2 × 10^-02
	hlh-1 + hnd-1	88	97	75	98	62	81	Yes	6.6 × 10^-01	5.7 × 10^-03
	unc-120 + hnd-1	54	100	74	98	36	100	No	6.4 × 10^-01	1.9 × 10^-01
	egl-27 + egr-1	93	99	79	90	90	89	No	6.0 × 10^-02	7.4 × 10^-01
rrf-3	mec-8 + sym-1	67	73	61	73	59	16	Yes	3.3 × 10^-01	3.0 × 10^-06
	sop-3 + sop-1	82	100	85	96	41	75	Yes	3.1 × 10^-04	5.7 × 10^-06
	tbx-8 + tbx-9	96	99	86	92	59	2	Yes	8.6 × 10^-03	6.3 × 10^-27
	hlh-1 + unc-120	90	90	31	99	1	64	Yes	8.1 × 10^-06	2.9 × 10^-03
	hlh-1 + hnd-1	86	87	82	94	42	24	Yes	1.6 × 10^-03	8.2 × 10^-14
	unc-120 + hnd-1	33	100	87	94	7	98	Yes	5.7 × 10^-04	4.8 × 10^-02
	egl-27 + egr-1	97	99	83	93	73	62	Yes	2.9 × 10^-01	5.7 × 10^-08

Quantitative analysis of known synthetic lethal interactions (Interaction Gene1 + Gene2; see below for references) after combinatorial RNA interference (RNAi) in wild-type or RNAi-hypersensitive rrf-3 worms [19]. Percentages of average wild-type brood size (BS) and embryonic survival (ES) rates resulting from RNAi targeting each gene individually (Gene1 or Gene2) as well as targeting both genes simultaneously (Gene1 + 2) are shown. A synthetic interaction (Syn) was scored positive for p < 5.0 × 10^-02 (by Student's t-test). References for genes tested: mec-8 + sym-1 [21]; sop-3 + sop-1 [22]; tbx-8 + tbx-9 [23]; hlh-1 + unc-120, hlh-1 + hnd-1, unc-120 + hnd-1 [24]; and egl-27 + egr-1 [25].

ISSN: 1474-760X