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Neurogenetics

A screening success

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 6, page 668 (2005)Cite this article

C. elegans neurons are normally insensitive to RNAi screens. However, Wang and colleagues made the unexpected discovery that genes in the C. elegans homologue of the mammalian retinoblastoma pathway negatively regulate RNAi. They showed that mutations to several components of this pathway enhance the effectiveness of RNAi, probably because neurons and other mature cells revert to immature germline cells, which have a heightened sensitivity to RNAi.

Sieburth and colleagues used these mutant forms of C. elegans to systematically search for genes that are implicated in neurotransmission at the neuromuscular junction by screening for a reduction in acetylcholine secretion following RNAi. In total, they identified 185 genes, 132 of which had not previously been implicated in synaptic communication.

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPERS

  1. Sieburth, D. et al. Systematic analysis of genes required for synapse structure and function. Nature 436, 510–517 (2005)

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  2. Wang, D. et al. Somatic misexpression of germline P granules and enhanced RNA interference in retinoblastoma pathway mutants. Nature 436, 593–597 (2005)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

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Authors
  1. Alison Rowan
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Rowan, A. A screening success. Nat Rev Neurosci 6, 668 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn1755

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn1755

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