Journal of RNAi and Gene Silencing (February 2006), 2(1), 126-135

Review

In ovo RNAi opens new possibilities for temporal and spatial control of gene silencing during development of the vertebrate nervous system

Thomas Baeriswyl and Esther T Stoeckli*

ABSTRACT

Loss-of-function approaches are important tools for functional gene analysis. Due to the availability of sophisticated methods to manipulate gene expression in embryonic stem cells that can be used to generate mutant mice, the mouse is by far the most important vertebrate model organism for basic and applied biomedical research. Unfortunately, the available methods do not allow for precise temporal and spatial control of gene silencing during embryonic development limiting the usefulness of the mouse for developmental studies. Due to their easy accessibility chicken embryos have been one of the preferred model organisms for developmental studies. Their disadvantage, the lack of genetic tools, could be overcome by the development of in ovo RNAi (in ovo RNA interference), a method that allows for temporal and spatial control of gene silencing in vivo.

KEYWORDS: RNAi, chicken embryo, in ovo RNAi, in utero RNAi, nervous system, embryonic development

Institute of Zoology, University of Zurich , Winterthurerstrasse 190 , 8057 Zurich , Switzerland

*Correspondence to: Esther Stoeckli, Email: Esther.Stoeckli@zool.unizh.ch, Tel: +41 44 6354840, Fax: +41 44 6356879

© Copyright Baeriswyl and Stoeckli

(Received 01 December 2005; Revised 27 January 2006, Accepted 03 February 2006)