Targeting Protein Function in Vivo using Small Interfering Proteins (SIPs)

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The ability to interfere with gene function is a common technique used to infer the role of genes in animals and plants. However, current technologies for disrupting gene function suffer from several limitations. For example, gene knockouts completely eliminate production of the protein coded by the gene. Consequently, it is difficult to eliminate a single function of multi subunit, multifunctional proteins or to target modified forms of a protein. Cellular processes are often mediated by chemical modifications to proteins, such as addition of a phosphate moiety. In this project, the investigators will evaluate the use of Small Interfering Proteins (SIPs) to specifically interfere with protein function, or parts thereof, in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. SIPs are small proteins that have been engineered to bind to specific domains of the targeted protein with high specificity and affinity. When SIPs bind to specific regions of target proteins, they should disrupt protein function. The investigators will express synthetic genes encoding SIPs targeting test proteins to evaluate the ability and use of SIPs to selectively target protein function in whole organism. If successful, SIPs will provide a valuable set of tools to study the molecular mechanisms underlying cellular function. These tools are expected to greatly improve our understanding of the biology of development.