Expession data from L1-L2 stage nematodes (C. elegans), wild type and four mutants (
alg-1,
zfp-1,
rde-4,
lin-35). In C. elegans, a vast number of endogenous short RNAs corresponding to thousands of genes have been discovered recently. This finding suggests that these short interfering RNAs may contribute to regulation of many developmental and other signaling pathways in addition to silencing viruses and transposons. Based on this microarray analysis of gene expression in RNA interference (RNAi)-related mutants
rde-4,
zfp-1 and
alg-1 and the Retinoblastoma (Rb) mutant
lin-35, we found that a component of Dicer complex RDE-4 and a chromatin-related zinc finger protein ZFP-1, not implicated previously in endogenous RNAi, regulate overlapping sets of genes. Notably, genes a) upregulated in the
rde-4 and
zfp-1 mutants and b) upregulated in the
lin-35(Rb) mutant, but not the downregulated genes are highly represented in the set of genes with corresponding endogenous short interfering RNAs (endo-siRNAs). Keywords: wildtype-mutant comparison, RNAi, Rb, endo-siRNA