Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Research Highlight
  • Published:

Systems biology

Network fundamentals, via hub genes

Nature Reviews Genetics volume 7, pages 664–665 (2006)Cite this article

The new screen, reported by Ben Lehner and colleagues, was designed to detect interactions between a member of an RNAi library and genes that were individually mutated in 'query' strains. In practice, one of a library of RNAi reagents was delivered to both mutant and wild-type worms, and the treated animals were then scored for a synthetic phenotype. The assay, therefore, involved asking: is the phenotype caused by combining a library RNAi reagent and any mutant allele more severe than the product of the phenotype seen in the mutant and in the library-treated wild-type worm alone? If the answer is yes, then an interaction between the two genes is deemed to be likely.

The authors were particularly interested in assessing the interaction between components of signalling pathways, as there is much evidence that, when mutated, these molecules cause disease in mammals. The RNAi library consisted of about 1,750 genes that, based on sequence homology, are involved in signal transduction; likewise, each of the 37 query strains carried a mutation in a known signalling molecule. Of the 65,000 pairwise interactions that were tested ∼350 interactions, involving 162 genes, were identified.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Lehner, B. et al. Systematic mapping of genetic interactions in Caenorhabditis elegans identifies common modifiers of diverse signalling pathways. Nature Genet. 38, 896–903 (2006)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

FURTHER READING

  1. Echeverri, C. J. and Perrimon, N. High-throughput RNAi screening in cultured cells: a user's guide. Nature Rev. Genet. 7, 373–384 (2006)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Barabási, A. L. and Oltvai, Z. N. Network biology: understanding the cell's functional organization. Nature Rev. Genet. 5, 101–113 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Tanita Casci
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Related links

Related links

WEB SITE

Andrew Fraser's laboratory

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Casci, T. Network fundamentals, via hub genes. Nat Rev Genet 7, 664–665 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg1949

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg1949

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

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