RT Journal
A1 Fernandez, Anita G.
A1 Gunsalus, Kristin C.
A1 Huang, Jerry
A1 Chuang, Ling-Shiang
A1 Ying, Nancy
A1 Liang, Hsiao-lan
A1 Tang, Caroline
A1 Schetter, Aaron J.
A1 Zegar, Charles
A1 Rual, Jean-François
A1 Hill, David E.
A1 Reinke, Valerie
A1 Vidal, Marc
A1 Piano, Fabio
T1 New genes with roles in the C. elegans embryo revealed using RNAi of ovary-enriched ORFeome clones
JF Genome Research 
JO Genome Research 
YR 2005 
FD February 01 
VO 15 
IS 2 
SP 250 
OP 259 
DO 10.1101/gr.3194805 
UL http://genome.cshlp.org/content/15/2/250.abstract 
AB Several RNA interference (RNAi)-based functional genomic projects have been performed in Caenorhabditis elegans to identify genes required during embryogenesis. These studies have demonstrated that the ovary is enriched for transcripts essential for the first cell divisions. However, comparing RNAi results suggests that many genes involved in embryogenesis have yet to be identified, especially those eliciting partially penetrant phenotypes. To discover additional genes required for C. elegans embryonic development, we tested by RNAi 1123 ORFeome clones selected to represent ovary-enriched genes not associated with an embryonic phenotype. We discovered 155 new ovary-enriched genes with roles during embryogenesis, of which 69% show partial penetrance lethality. Time-lapse microscopy revealed specific phenotypes during early embryogenesis for genes giving rise to high penetrance lethality. Together with previous studies, we now have evidence that 1843 C. elegans genes have roles in embryogenesis, and that many more remain to be found. Using all available RNAi phenotypic data for the ovary-enriched genes, we re-examined the distribution of genes by chromosomal location, functional class, ovary enrichment, and conservation and found that trends are driven almost exclusively by genes eliciting high-penetrance phenotypes. Furthermore, we discovered a striking direct relationship between phylogenetic distribution and the penetrance level of embryonic lethality elicited by RNAi.