Commentary | Published:

RNAi screening: tips and techniques

Nature Immunology 10, 799–804 (2009) | Download Citation

Subjects

By identifying gene products whose knockdown is associated with phenotypic changes, large-scale RNA-mediated interference screens have demonstrated previously unknown components of biological pathways. This commentary provides general guidelines for using such screens to answer questions of immunological interest.

Access optionsAccess options

Rent or Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

from$8.99

Rent or Buy

All prices are NET prices.

References

  1. 1.

    & Nat. Rev. Genet. 7, 373–384 (2006).

  2. 2.

    & Genetics 175, 7–16 (2007).

  3. 3.

    & Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 7, 177–187 (2006).

  4. 4.

    , , & Nature 424, 797–801 (2003).

  5. 5.

    et al. Science 321, 686–691 (2008).

  6. 6.

    et al. Immunity 29, 839–841 (2008).

  7. 7.

    et al. Nature 441, 179–185 (2006).

  8. 8.

    et al. Science 312, 1220–1223 (2006).

  9. 9.

    et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 103, 9357–9362 (2006).

  10. 10.

    et al. Nature 441, 646–650 (2006).

  11. 11.

    , , & Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 103, 16400–16405 (2006).

  12. 12.

    & Nature 431, 371–378 (2004).

  13. 13.

    & Biochem. Soc. Trans. 32, 952–956 (2004).

  14. 14.

    et al. Nature 432, 1036–1040 (2004).

  15. 15.

    et al. Curr. Biol. 15, 1235–1241 (2005).

  16. 16.

    , & Genes Dev. 15, 188–200 (2001).

  17. 17.

    , et al. Nucleic Acids Res. 10, 2867–2881 (2009).

  18. 18.

    et al. J. Immunol. 169, 5754–5760 (2002).

  19. 19.

    , , , & J. Immunol. 171, 1750–1757 (2003).

  20. 20.

    , & Science 296, 550–553 (2002).

  21. 21.

    et al. RNA 9, 493–501 (2003).

  22. 22.

    et al. Nat. Genet. 37, 1281–1288 (2005).

  23. 23.

    et al. Blood 108, 3305–3312 (2006).

  24. 24.

    , & Methods Mol. Biol. 455, 149–155 (2008).

  25. 25.

    & Nature 411, 107–110 (2001).

  26. 26.

    et al. Nat. Methods 3, 385–390 (2006).

  27. 27.

    et al. Nat. Cell Biol. 10, 1027–1038 (2008).

  28. 28.

    , & J. Biomol. Screen. 4, 67–73 (1999).

  29. 29.

    et al. Nature 441, 106–110 (2006).

  30. 30.

    et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 105, 20380–20385 (2008).

  31. 31.

    et al. Science 319, 620–624 (2008).

  32. 32.

    et al. Nat. Methods 3, 777–779 (2006).

  33. 33.

    et al. Nat. Biotechnol. 23, 457–462 (2005).

  34. 34.

    et al. Science 319, 921–926 (2008).

  35. 35.

    et al. Cell Host Microbe 4, 495–504 (2008).

  36. 36.

    et al. Cell 135, 49–60 (2008).

  37. 37.

    Cell 135, 417–420 (2008).

  38. 38.

    et al. Nature 458, 92–96 (2009).

  39. 39.

    et al. Nature 454, 226–231 (2008).

  40. 40.

    Jr. Nat. Rev. Cancer 5, 689–698 (2005).

  41. 41.

    et al. Nature 446, 815–819 (2007).

Download references

Acknowledgements

Supported by the US National Institutes of Health (A.R.), the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (A.R.), the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (S.S.) and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (S.S.).

Author information

Affiliations

  1. Sonia Sharma and Anjana Rao are in the Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Immune Disease Institute and the Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Children's Hospital Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

    • Sonia Sharma
    •  & Anjana Rao

Authors

  1. Search for Sonia Sharma in:

  2. Search for Anjana Rao in:

Competing interests

A.R. is a shareholder of and scientific advisor to CaliMedica and receives laboratory support from Glaxo-Smith-Kline.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anjana Rao.

To obtain permission to re-use content from this article visit RightsLink.

About this article

Publication history

Published

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1038/ni0809-799

Further reading

Newsletter Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing