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Vector-free DNA constructs improve transgene expression in C. elegans

Nature Methods volume 5, page 3 (2008)Cite this article

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One advantage of the Caenorhabditis elegans model system is the ease and speed with which transgenic worms can be generated1. This feature has been used to rescue mutant phenotypes, to express genes heterologously and to analyze gene expression patterns and cis-regulatory regions with reporter genes2. With transgenic approaches, one often relies in part on the interpretation of negative results, such as the failure to observe reporter expression after deletion of putative regulatory elements or the failure to observe a biological effect by expressing a gene in one but not in another cell type.

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Figure 1: Expression of reporter gene constructs derived from the gcy-5, lim-6 and lsy-6 genes.

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Acknowledgements

We thank N. Flames for sharing information, Q. Chen for DNA injection, Hobert lab members and H. Bülow, A. Grishok and I. Greenwald for comments on the manuscript and acknowledge funding by US National Institutes of Health (R01NS039996-05; R01NS050266-03) and Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

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  1. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 701 W. 168th Street, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, 10032, New York, USA

    John F Etchberger & Oliver Hobert

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  1. John F Etchberger
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  2. Oliver Hobert
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Supplementary Methods, Supplementary Tables 1–2 (PDF 614 kb)

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Etchberger, J., Hobert, O. Vector-free DNA constructs improve transgene expression in C. elegans. Nat Methods 5, 3 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth0108-3

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