Dear breeders, I’d like to know if there any technology could perform RNAi in a given single cell or cluster in C. elegans?
People have done cell-specific or tissue-specific RNAi by using tissue-specific rescue of rde-1 in animals lacking rde-1 function. Others have transgenically expressed dsRNAs in cells of interest using hairpin constructs, and I think have done so in syd-1 mutants defective in systemic RNAi to prevent the resulting dsRNA spreading to other cells.
One small correction from Hillel’s post - the gene that is defective in systemic RNAi is sid-1, not syd-1 (which is a different gene altogether and has defects in synaptogenesis).