Functional Genomics by comprehensive RNAi mutant fly bank in Drosophila

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In this project, we developed the 'inducible RNAi system and applied it to 14,000 protein-coding genes in Drosophila. To date, IR vectors corresponding 8,300 genes have been constructed and over 12.000 transformed fly lines have been established. To check the efficacy of these RNAi flies and to apply them to investigate new functions of the genes, collaborative researches have been carried out with fly researchers in the world. These collaborations include many subjects of life sciences, such as, cell growth, apoptosis, morphogenesis of cells and tissues, innate immunity, heart/trachea/alimentary canal development, neurogenesis, memory/learning, circadian rhythm, polyglutamin disease, Alzheimer disease, and glycobiology et etc. The publications through these collaborations are up to 20, which are listed below.The specific characters of these RNAi mutant flies have also become clear through the collaborations. In the embryonic stages, nock-down of gene expression by inducible RNAi seemed sometimes weaker than that at other developmental stages, probably because of the huge amount of the maternal gene product. Also in some neural tissues, the phenotype of the RNAi was weaker than that obtained by mosaic analysis using null mutation. However, in almost cases, the RNAi flies could knock-down the target gene specifically, reproduce a typical phenotype of the known gene, and reveal a new phenotype of the gene, whose function is not known. The fact that the screening of many genes for an anticipated phenotype proved to be very easy implies the usefulness of these RNAi mutant fly bank in many applications of gene function analyses. The RNAi flies produced in this project will be opened to the fly community till the end of this summer from the stock center in the National Institute of Genetics.