For this experiment we were screening the C. elegans genome for genes related to the one minute rhythmic digestive cycle.

To do to do this we took advantage of a technique called RNAi, aka RNA interference, to "knock down" the expression of specific sequences of DNA.

Essentially this let us ask the question "What happens when we turn this gene off?"

The model organism C. elegans is particularly well suited for this experiment because of the ease in which we are able to use RNAi.

Also called "feeding RNAi" the expression of the gene(s) of interest can be knocked down by providing the worms with their natural food, E. coli bacteria that are expressing a vector containing the worm DNA sequence.

We made quite a few discoveries along the way...

We found that the changes in phenotype we were looking for would be evident within the first generation of feeding. This let us cut down on resource expenditure immensely as we did not need to continue observation for multiple generations.

I was impressed by the proportion of genes that did not seem to dramatically affect the phenotype.

Most of the genes 200 or so genes that we identified are putative transcription factors.