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Updated: Jul 15, 2026

Large-scale Gene Knockdown in C. elegans Using dsRNA Feeding Libraries to Generate Robust Loss-of-function Phenotypes
Published on: September 25, 2013
Evidence that noncoding RNA dutA is a multicopy suppressor of Dictyostelium discoideum STAT protein Dd-STATa
1Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Toho University, 2-2-1 Miyama, Funabashi, Chiba 274-8510, Japan.
Abstract:
Dd-STATa, a Dictyostelium discoideum homologue of metazoan STAT transcription factors, is necessary for culmination. We created a mutant strain with partial Dd-STATa activity and used it to screen for unlinked suppressor genes. We screened approximately 450,000 clones from a slug-stage cDNA library for their ability to rescue the culmination defect when overexpressed. There were 12 multicopy suppressors of Dd-STATa, of which 4 encoded segments of a known noncoding RNA, dutA. Expression of dutA is specific to the pstA zone, the region where Dd-STATa is activated. In suppressed strains the expression patterns of several putative Dd-STATa target genes become similar to the wild-type strain. In addition, the amount of the tyrosine-phosphorylated form of Dd-STATa is significantly increased in the suppressed strain. These results indicate that partial copies of dutA may act upstream of Dd-STATa to regulate tyrosine phosphorylation by an unknown mechanism.
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