RNA Interference
RNA interference (RNAi) has been used extensively in C. elegans because it can be done by simply feeding the worms transgenic bacteria expressing double stranded RNA complementary to the gene of interest. Their relative simplicity makes gene loss-of-function experiments in C. elegans the easiest of all animal models, and thus, scientists have been able to knock down 86% of the ~20,000 genes in the worm, establishing a functional role for 9% of the genome.
Incidentally, RNAi does not work nearly as well in other species of worm in the Caenorhabditis genus. Although injecting RNA into the body cavity of the animal induces silencing in most species, only C. elegans and a few other distantly-related nematodes can uptake RNA from the bacteria they eat for RNAi. This ability has been mapped down to a single gene, sid-2, which when inserted as a transgene in other species, allows them to uptake RNA for RNAi the way C. elegans does.
Read more about this topic: Caenorhabditis Elegans
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