Large-scale RNAi screen in red flour beetle (Tribolium) to identify genes involved in muscle development

Schultheis D, Weißkopf M, Schaub C, Ansari S, Dao VA, Grossmann D, Majumdar U, Hakeemi MS, Troelenberg N, Richter T, Schmitt-Engel C, Schwirz J, Ströhlein N, Teuscher M, Bucher G, Frasch M. A Large Scale Systemic RNAi Screen in the Red Flour Beetle Tribolium castaneum Identifies Novel Genes Involved in Insect Muscle Development. G3 (Bethesda). 2019 Feb 7. pii: g3.200995.2018. PMID: 30733381.


Schultheis D, Schwirz J, Frasch M. RNAi Screen in Tribolium Reveals Involvement of F-BAR Proteins in Myoblast Fusion and Visceral Muscle Morphogenesis in Insects. G3 (Bethesda). 2019 Feb 7. pii: g3.200996.2018. doi: 10.1534/g3.118.200996. PMID: 30733382.

Beyond fruit flies--iBeetle large-scale RNAi screen in Tribolium

Schmitt-Engel C, Schultheis D, Schwirz J, Ströhlein N, Troelenberg N, Majumdar U, Dao VA, Grossmann D, Richter T, Tech M, Dönitz J, Gerischer L, Theis M, Schild I, Trauner J, Koniszewski ND, Küster E, Kittelmann S, Hu Y, Lehmann S, Siemanowski J, Ulrich J, Panfilio KA, Schröder R, Morgenstern B, Stanke M, Buchhholz F, Frasch M, Roth S, Wimmer EA, Schoppmeier M, Klingler M, Bucher G. The iBeetle large-scale RNAi screen reveals gene functions for insect development and physiology. Nat Commun. 2015 Jul 28;6:7822. PMID: 26215380.

From the abstract: "Genetic screens are powerful tools to identify the genes required for a given biological process. .. for technical reasons, comprehensive screens have been restricted to very few model organisms. ... although deep sequencing is revealing the genes of ever more insect species, the functional studies predominantly focus on candidate genes previously identified in Drosophila, which is biasing research towards conserved gene functions. RNAi screens in other organisms promise to reduce this bias. Here we present the results of the iBeetle screen, a large-scale, unbiased RNAi screen in the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum ... This work transcends the restrictions of the candidate gene approach and opens fields of research not accessible in Drosophila."

Don't miss: "New fields of research" section of the article, which describes studies, such as of the 'odiferous stink glands,' that can be done in Tribolium but not Drosophila.

RNAi in 30 Insect Species and Counting

On my desk today? A recently e-published review by Xavier Belles in the upcoming 2010 edition of Annual Reviews in Entomology, Beyond Drosophila: RNAi in vivo and functional genomics in insects.

dsRNA Transport & Systemic RNAi

What am I reading today? Some reports on SID-1, an RNA transporter from C. elegans.

Feinberg & Hunter (2003) Transport of dsRNA into cells by the transmembrane protein SID-1. Science 301: 1545-1547. PubMed ID 12970568.

Shih et al. (2009) The SID-1 double-stranded RNA transporter is not selective for dsRNA length. RNA. DOI 10.1261/rna.1286409. PubMed ID 19155320.

Jose et al. (2009) Export of RNAi silencing for C. elegans does not require the RNA channel SID-1. PNAS.  PubMed ID 19168628.

Why am I reading these? (1) Introduction of SID-1 into Drosophila cells can sensitize them to dsRNA treatment, presumably by facilitating uptake. (2) In C. elegans, RNAi effects spread systemically, a phenomenon not observed in Drosophila. But it looks like SID-1 is not the whole answer when it comes to systemic spread.

Related of interest:

Hunter et al. (2006) Systemic RNAi in Caenorhabditis elegans. CSH Symp Quant Biol. 71:95-100. PubMed ID 17381285.

Tomoyasu et al. (2008) Exploring systemic RNA interference in insects: a genome-wide survey for RNAi genes in Tribolium. Genome Biol 9(1):R10. PubMed ID 18201385. Free full text at Genome Biology.