Novel Genetic Screens Provide Panoramic Views of Cellular Systems

Researchers often use the technique of RNA interference (RNAi) to identify genes involved in particular biological processes by knocking them down, one at a time, and observing the result. But this approach fails to capture some key players because many genes are redundant. Thus, cells can mask their distress when they lose a single gene by turning to fail-safes with the same function. A team has now overcome this obstacle, using RNAi to systematically knock down pairs of genes in fruit fly cells.

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