BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Neurosci.
Sec. Neuroscience Methods and Techniques
Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnins.2025.1546196
Planarian RNAi knockdown: feeding once might just be enough
Provisionally accepted
- 1Institut des Neurosciences Cellulaires et Intégratives, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UPR 3212, Strasbourg, France
- 2Laboratoire des Neurosciences Cognitives et Adaptatives, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique & Université de Strasbourg, UMR 7634, Strasbourg, France
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RNA interference (RNAi) is a powerful tool to knock down the expression of genes of interests.In planarians, a popular animal model to study development and regeneration processes, RNAi is easily set up by feeding the animals double-stranded RNA (dsRNA). However, there is no consensus in the literature on the amount of dsRNA needed to efficiently knock down gene expression, nor on the lasting effect of this knockdown. Here, we exposed the worms to two RNAi protocols, either feeding them dsRNA only once or three times in the span of a week.To observe the gradual loss and retrieval of nociceptive phenotypes, we exposed the worms to Allyl Isothiocyanate (AITC), an irritant and TRPA1 receptor agonist, while we knocked down the expression of the TRPA1 receptor and performed behavioral assessments over 11 weeks.We showed that feeding planarians once was sufficient to induce similar phenotypes as feeding them three times, that also lasted as long. These insights are useful to refine RNAi protocol timelines and may save some valuable resources.
Keywords: Planaria, Nociception, RNA Interference, TRPA1, refinement, knockdown (KD)
Received: 16 Dec 2024; Accepted: 18 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Reho, Menger, Lelievre and Hervé. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: CADIOU Hervé, Institut des Neurosciences Cellulaires et Intégratives, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UPR 3212, Strasbourg, France
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