I was wondering whether there is tissue-specific RNAi strain for nervous system just like VP303, in which RNAi is only effective in intestine. Thanks!
The paper Snug cites expresses the RNA transporter gene sid-1 in neurons to greatly improve the effectiveness of RNA in neurons; it is not, as you request, a tool for restricting the effectiveness of RNAi to neurons. I only point this out because I’ve actually seen experiments using that strain published as “neuron-specific RNAi”.
The strain you describe uses tissue-specific rescue of rde-1 to get tissue-specific RNAi. Ideally, to get neuron-specific RNAi you’d combine a similar approach using pan-neuronal rde-1 expression with pan-neuronal expression of sid-1. I don’t know of such a strain, which is a shame; it sounds like it would be a great tool. There are I think some strains rescuing rde-1 in neurons, but I couldn’t rapidly find one. My suggestion would be to contact Chalfie asking for his pan-neuronal sid-1 expression construct, contact one of the labs doing tissue-specific rescue of rde-1, put a pan-neuronal promoter on their rde-1 rescuing construct (if they can’t provide such a version already), and co-inject the two. Unless you can (preferably) find some kind soul who’s already done so!
Following-up on Hillel’s point, Chris Firnhaber in Marc Hammarlund’s lab here at Yale has developed a system for neural-specific RNAi exactly as you describe. He has generated a single-copy MosSCI transgene that expresses rde-1 and sid-1 in neurons. It seems to work very well in the eri-1, lin-15 background (at least). The work is still unpublished, but I assume it will come out soon enough and they may be willing to collaborate and/or share.
-Kevin.
Thank you all!