RNAiAtlas: A database for RNAi (siRNA) libraries and their specificity

Abstract

Large-scale RNA interference (RNAi) experiments, especially the ones based on short-interfering RNA (siRNA) technology became increasingly popular over the past years. For such knock-down/screening purposes, different companies offer sets of oligos/reagents targeting the whole genome or a subset of it for various organisms. Obviously, the sequence (and structure) of the corresponding oligos is a key factor in obtaining reliable results in these large-scale studies and the companies use a variety of (often not fully public) algorithms to design them. Nevertheless, as the genome annotations are still continuously changing, oligos may become obsolete, so siRNA reagents should be periodically re-annotated according to the latest version of the sequence database (which of course has serious consequences also on the interpretation of the screening results). In our article, we would like to introduce a new software/database tool, the RNAiAtlas. It has been created for exploration, analysis and distribution of large scale RNAi libraries (currently limited to the human genome) with their latest annotation (including former history) but in addition it contains also specific on-target analysis results (design quality, side effects, off-targets). © The Author(s) 2012.