Economical methods by which gene function may be analysed on a genomic scale are relatively scarce. To fill this need, we have developed a transposon-tagging strategy for the genome-wide analysis of disruption phenotypes, gene expression and protein localization, and have applied this method to the large-scale analysis of gene function in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Here we present the largest collection of defined yeast mutants ever generated within a single genetic background--a collection of over 11,000 strains, each carrying a transposon inserted within a region of the genome expressed during vegetative growth and/or sporulation. These insertions affect nearly 2,000 annotated genes, representing about one-third of the 6,200 predicted genes in the yeast genome. We have used this collection to determine disruption phenotypes for nearly 8,000 strains using 20 different growth conditions; the resulting data sets were clustered to identify groups of functionally related genes. We have also identified over 300 previously non-annotated open reading frames and analysed by indirect immunofluorescence over 1,300 transposon-tagged proteins. In total, our study encompasses over 260,000 data points, constituting the largest functional analysis of the yeast genome ever undertaken.

Reverse genetic analysis was performed on the Caenorhabditis elegans 26S proteasome subunit genes by double-stranded RNA-mediated interference (RNAi). Embryonic and post-embryonic lethality was caused by interference of all of the eight tested 20S core subunits and all of the 19S regulatory particle subunits except for Ce-Rpn9, Ce-Rpn10, and Ce-Rpn12, where RNAi caused no abnormality. However, synthetic suppression of Ce-Rpn10 and Ce-Rpn12 was lethal, whereas neither the combination of Ce-Rpn9 with Ce-Rpn10 nor with Ce-Rpn12 resulted in abnormalities in RNAi. These results indicate that the 26S proteasome is indispensable for embryogenesis and post-embryonic development, although Ce-Rpn9, Ce-Rpn10, and Ce-Rpn12 are not essential, at least under the conditions used. Ce-Rpn10 and Ce-Rpn12 are considered to compensate for the suppression of each other.

Functional analysis using RNAi was performed on eleven genes for metalloproteases of the M12A family in Caenorhabditis elegans and the interference of the C17G1.6 gene (nas-37) was found to cause incomplete molting. The RNAi of the C26C6.3 gene (nas-36) also caused a similar molting defect but not so severely as that of the nas-37 gene. Both the genes encode an astacin-like metalloprotease with an epidermal growth factor (EGF)-like domain, a CUB domain, and a thrombospondin-1 domain, in this order. The promoter-driven green fluorescent protein (GFP) expression analysis suggested that they are expressed in hypodermal cells throughout the larval stages and in the vulva of adult animals. In the genetic background of rde-1(ne219), where RNAi does not work, the molting defect caused by the nas-37 interference was observed when the transgenic wild-type rde-1 gene was expressed under the control of the dpy-7 promoter, known to be active in the hypodermal cells, but not under the control of the myo-3 promoter, active in the muscular cells. Therefore these proteases are thought to be secreted by the hypodermal cells and to participate in shedding of old cuticles.

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