With the backing of the NIH/NIGMS, the Drosophila Transgenic RNAi Project, or TRiP, has the goal to generate 6,250 transgenic RNAi lines designed to fill in the phenotype gap and help researchers overcome issues associated with pleiotropy. Specifically, we are using a new approach for transgenic RNAi that relies on phiC31-targeted integration combined with the Gal4/UAS system. In this way, conditional and tissue-specific expression of hairpin constructs in Drosophila will be generated.

All validated transgenic fly lines will be made available to the entire community through the Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center (BDSC). The collection will be invaluable to address a myriad of questions in biology and medicine, including but not limited to cell biology, signal transduction and cancer, the etiology of congenital malformations, neurodegeneration, and behavior.

A pilot project supported by the HHMI/Janelia Farm Visitor Program between the laboratories of N. Perrimon, C. Zuker and G. Rubin has generated nearly 2,300 hairpin lines. Genes to be targeted are selected based on the BDSC mandate of one mutation per gene, the needs of screeners at the Drosophila RNAi Screening Center (DRSC), and the needs of the Drosophila community for in vivo phenotypic analyses. The resource will be housed in the TRiP facility at Harvard Medical School (production and for screening) and transferred on a regular schedule to the BDSC (for distribution).