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Review
. 2010 Aug;2(8):a003640.
doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a003640. Epub 2010 Jun 9.

In vivo RNAi: today and tomorrow

Norbert Perrimon  1 , Jian-Quan Ni, Lizabeth Perkins
Affiliations
Review

In vivo RNAi: today and tomorrow

Norbert Perrimon et al. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol. 2010 Aug.

Abstract

RNA interference (RNAi) provides a powerful reverse genetics approach to analyze gene functions both in tissue culture and in vivo. Because of its widespread applicability and effectiveness it has become an essential part of the tool box kits of model organisms such as Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila, and the mouse. In addition, the use of RNAi in animals in which genetic tools are either poorly developed or nonexistent enables a myriad of fundamental questions to be asked. Here, we review the methods and applications of in vivo RNAi to characterize gene functions in model organisms and discuss their impact to the study of developmental as well as evolutionary questions. Further, we discuss the applications of RNAi technologies to crop improvement, pest control and RNAi therapeutics, thus providing an appreciation of the potential for phenomenal applications of RNAi to agriculture and medicine.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
SiRNAs, shRNAs, shmiRNAs, and long dsRNAs pathways.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Transgenic RNAi in Drosophila. (A) Tissue expression of the transgenic RNAi construct is achieved following a cross between a UAS-hairpin and a Gal4 driver line. The main advantage of this method, in addition to its relatively simple design and fast execution time, is that it allows spatial and temporal control of the knockdown construct, which is essential for characterizing genes with pleiotropic functions. As thousands of Gal4 lines are available, appropriate Gal4 drivers are basically available for most questions to be addressed in the intact animal. (B) Examples of tissue specific RNAi phenotypes generated in the eye (knockdown of the white gene in the eye using the GMR-Gal4 driver), muscle (knockdown of the sallimus (sis) gene in the eye using the Dmef2-Gal4 driver), and wings (knockdown of the Notch (N) gene and cubitus interruptus (ci) genes in the wing using the C96-Gal4 and en-Gal4 drivers, respectively).
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Structure of the vectors (A) and transgenic RNAi resources (B) available in Drosophila.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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