In Vivo RNAi Rescue in Drosophila melanogaster with Genomic Transgenes from Drosophila pseudoobscura

Background

Systematic, large-scale RNA interference (RNAi) approaches are very valuable to systematically investigate biological processes in cell culture or in tissues of organisms such as Drosophila. A notorious pitfall of all RNAi technologies are potential false positives caused by unspecific knock-down of genes other than the intended target gene. The ultimate proof for RNAi specificity is a rescue by a construct immune to RNAi, typically originating from a related species.

Methodology/Principal Findings

We show that primary sequence divergence in areas targeted by Drosophila melanogaster RNAi hairpins in five non-melanogaster species is sufficient to identify orthologs for 81% of the genes that are predicted to be RNAi refractory. We use clones from a genomic fosmid library of Drosophila pseudoobscura to demonstrate the rescue of RNAi phenotypes in Drosophila melanogaster muscles. Four out of five fosmid clones we tested harbour cross-species functionality for the gene assayed, and three out of the four rescue a RNAi phenotype in Drosophila melanogaster.

Conclusions/Significance

The Drosophila pseudoobscura fosmid library is designed for seamless cross-species transgenesis and can be readily used to demonstrate specificity of RNAi phenotypes in a systematic manner.     

Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of tomato elicits unexpected flower phenotypes with similar gene expression profiles

Background

Genetic transformation mediated by Agrobacterium tumefaciens is known to cause unexpected phenotypes. Mutations of a specific set of homeotic genes can result in alterred floral structure.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Previously we identified two genes (LeTGA1 and SOLly GLB1) induced by nutrient availability in tomato. To further elucidate their function, we sought to knock out the genes using antisense RNAi. When antisense constructs for the two different tomato genes were each transformed into Micro-Tina tomato plants, one primary transformant with similar mutant flower phenotypes was identified from transformation of each construct. Microarray analysis shows that a similar set of genes were up- or downregulated in both mutants. Sequencing of insertion sites indicates that each is inserted into a repetitive region which could impact expression of affected genes but direct alteration of floral homeotic gene sequences was not detected.

Conclusion

This is the first report that dominant flower mutations could be caused by genetic transformation designed to knock out two nutrient stress related genes.