Table 4.

Influence of X-ray irradiation on the growth of F1 progeny from RNAi-treated animals

	Body length (mm)
	Control	D2005.5 (RNAi)	gei-17 (RNAi)
Mock irradiated	0.932 ± 0.062 (n = 40)	0.923 ± 0.076 (n = 32)	0.919 ± 0.116 (n = 43)
Significance relative to control (P-value)		0.521	0.560
X-ray irradiated (40 Gy)	0.992 ± 0.076 (n = 56)	0.726 ± 0.208 (n = 18)	0.826 ± 0.211 (n = 31)
Significance relative to control (P-value)		<0.0001	<0.0001

The genomic DNA fragment corresponding to gei-17(W10D5.3) was amplified using the primer set W10D5.3-F (5′-CGCTTCCACTTCCATTCTACGATG-3′) and W10D5.3-R (5′-GGCCATTCCAGATGGAGATGAGCC-3′). The D2005.5 cDNA fragment (∼1.5 kb) was amplified from a C. elegans embryo cDNA library using the primers D1-BF (5′-CCGGGATCCATCGTTGATCTGATGCCTGCGATGG-3′) and ZAP-R (5′-GAATTGTAATACGACTCACTATAGGGC-3′). The D2005.5 cDNA and gei-17 genomic DNA fragment were used for an X-ray-induced growth retardation assay. The growth of larvae from RNAi-treated animals was monitored by determining the mean body length of the animals. The mean ± standard deviation values of body length of animals at 3 days after X-ray or mock irradiation were determined and are indicated . Numbers of animals measured are in parentheses. Statistical significance of the differences in mean body length between control and RNAi-treated animals in each group was analysed by Student's t-test (significance at P < 0.05) using the software package JMP IN5.1.2J (SAS Institute, Cary, USA).