A genome-wide RNAi screen for enhancers of par mutants reveals new contributors to early embryonic polarity in Caenorhabditis elegans.

ABSTRACT: The par genes of Caenorhabditis elegans are essential for establishment and maintenance of early embryo polarity and their homologs in other organisms are crucial polarity regulators in diverse cell types. Forward genetic screens and simple RNAi depletion screens have identified additional conserved regulators of polarity in C. elegans; genes with redundant functions, however, will be missed by these approaches. To identify such genes, we have performed a genome-wide RNAi screen for enhancers of lethality in conditional par-1 and par-4 mutants. We have identified 18 genes for which depletion is synthetically lethal with par-1 or par-4, or both, but produces little embryo lethality in wild type. Fifteen of the 18 genes identified in our screen are not previously known to function in C. eleg

SUBMITTER: Morton DG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3522167 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature