Identifying MicroRNA Regulators of Cell Death in Drosophila

Animal genomes contain on the order of at least hundreds of microRNAs (miRNAs). Although most remain uncharacterized, it is already clear that miRNAs regulate many bio-logical processes. A number of Drosophila miRNAs have been identified as likely cell death regulators, but functions for most have simply not been explored. Here we describe a protocol for identifying miRNAs that can act as cell death regulators. We also describe a simple protocol for testing roles for mRNAs identified as candidate miRNA targets using computational or other approaches.