Skip to main content

RNAi Screening in Cultured Drosophila Cells

  • Protocol
Drosophila

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 420))

Abstract

RNA interference (RNAi) has become a widely used tool to analyze biological functions in vivo and in vitro. With the availability of an increasing number of Drosophila cell lines, a variety of different processes can be studied ranging from cell cycle control defects to signaling pathway activities and changes in cell morphology. Owing to the ease of RNAi in Drosophila cells, this experimental system has become a preferred method to screen for novel cellular factors, before their in depth analysis. We here describe the experimental procedures for RNAi experiments in cultured Drosophila cells, starting from the design of long double-stranded RNAs, their synthesis by in vitro transcription and application for cell-based RNAi experiments from low to high-throughput formats. Finally, we show how phenotype analysis can be performed using cell-based assays for luminescence or flow cytometric analysis as examples.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Protocol
USD 49.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Fire, A., Xu, S., Montgomery, M. K., Kostas, S. A., Driver, S. E., and Mello, C. C. (1998) Potent and specific genetic interference by double-stranded RNA in Caenorhabditis elegans. Nature 391, 806–811.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Kennerdell, J. R. and Carthew, R. W. (1998) Use of dsRNA-mediated genetic interference to demonstrate that frizzled and frizzled 2 act in the wingless pathway. Cell 95, 1017–1026.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Clemens, J. C., Worby, C. A., Simonson-Leff, N., et al. (2000) Use of double-stranded RNA interference in Drosophila cell lines to dissect signal transduction pathways. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 97, 6499–6503.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Boutros, M., Kiger, A. A., Armknecht, S., et al. (2004) Genome-wide RNAi analysis of growth and viability in Drosophila cells. Science 303, 832–835.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Kiger, A., Baum, B., Jones, S., et al. (2003) A functional genomic analysis of cell morphology using RNA interference. J. Biol. 2, 27.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Lum, L., Yao, S., Mozer, B., et al. (2003) Identification of Hedgehog pathway components by RNAi in Drosophila cultured cells. Science 299, 2039–2045.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Bartscherer, K., Pelte, N., Ingelfinger, D., and Boutros, M. (2006) Secretion of Wnt ligands requires Evi, a conserved transmembrane protein. Cell 125, 523–533.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Gesellchen, V., Kuttenkeuler, D., Steckel, M., Pelte, N., and Boutros, M. (2005) An RNA interference screen identifies Inhibitor of Apoptosis Protein 2 as a regulator of innate immune signalling in Drosophila. EMBO Rep. 6, 979–984.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Kleino, A., Valanne, S., Ulvila, J., et al. (2005) Inhibitor of apoptosis 2 and TAK1-binding protein are components of the Drosophila Imd pathway. EMBO J. 24, 3423–3434.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Foley, E. and O’Farrell, P. H. (2004) Functional dissection of an innate immune response by a genome-wide RNAi screen. PLoS Biol. 2, E203.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Sambrook, J., Fritsch, E. F., and Maniatis, T. (1989) Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Kulkarni, M. M., Booker, M., Silver, S. J., et al. (2006) Evidence of off-target effects associated with long dsRNAs in Drosophila melanogaster cell-based assays. Nat. Methods 3, 833–838.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Ma, Y., Creanga, A., Lum, L., and Beachy, P. A. (2006) Prevalence of off-target effects in Drosophila RNA interference screens. Nature 443, 359–363.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Arziman, Z., Horn, T., and Boutros, M. (2005) E-RNAi: a web application to design optimized RNAi constructs. Nucleic Acids Res. 33, W582–W588.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Rozen, S. and Skaletsky, H. (2000) Primer3 on the WWW for general users and for biologist programmers. Methods Mol. Biol. 132, 365–386.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Horn, T., Arziman, Z., Berger, J., and Boutros, M. (2007) GenomeRNAi: a database for cell-based RNAi phenotypes. Nucleic Acids Res. 35, D492–D497.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Sims, D., Bursteinas, B., Gao, Q., Zvelebil, M., and Baum, B. (2006) FLIGHT: database and tools for the integration and cross-correlation of large-scale RNAi phenotypic datasets. Nucleic Acids Res. 34, D479–D483.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Hild, M., Beckmann, B., Haas, S., et al. (2003) An integrated gene annotation and transcriptional profiling approach towards the full gene content of the Drosophila genome. Genome Biol. 5, R3.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Boutros, M., Bras, L., and Huber, W. (2006) Analysis of cell-based RNAi screens. Genome Biol. 7, R66.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2008 Humana Press Inc., Totowa, NJ

About this protocol

Cite this protocol

Steinbrink, S., Boutros, M. (2008). RNAi Screening in Cultured Drosophila Cells. In: Dahmann, C. (eds) Drosophila. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 420. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-583-1_8

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-583-1_8

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-58829-817-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-59745-583-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

Publish with us

Policies and ethics