We recently developed a piRNA-based silencing assay (piRNAi) to study small-RNA mediated epigenetic silencing: acute gene silencing is induced by synthetic piRNAs expressed from extra-chromosomal array and transgenerational inheritance can be quantified after array loss. The assay allows inheritance assays by injecting piRNAs directly into mutant animals and targeting endogenous genes ( e.g. ,
him-5 and
him-8 ) with obvious phenotypes (increased male frequency). Here we demonstrate the piRNAi assay by quantifying acute and inherited silencing in the ribonucleotidyltransferase
rde-3 (
ne3370) mutant. In the absence of
rde-3, acute silencing was reduced but still detectable, whereas inherited silencing was abolished.