Project Summary

The ability to manipulate gene expression using double stranded RNA (RNAi) has become a powerful tool in the fly and worm. In Drosophila, RNAi has proven effective in both the central nervous system as well as in peripheral tissues. We are part of a consortium at UCSF including the Vale and O'Farrell laboratories that has begun an effort to generate RNAi to every gene in the Drosophila genome. As a first step toward this goal, we will generate double stranded RNA to a set of ~7240 Drosophila genes that have been found to have related genes in both the Human Genome and/or the Worm Genome. We refer to this collection of dsRNAs as the "homologous genome." The collection of templates used to generate the dsRNAs is now publicly available from Openbiosystems (www.openbiosystems.com). At present, we have ongoing RNAi screens for individual RNAs that affect synaptic morphology or homeostasis.