SLAM -- Synthetic Lethality Analyzed by Microarray

Synthetic Lethality Analyzed by Microarray

Welcome to the Synthetic Lethality Project website!

Looking for GeneDesign, the toolkit for rapid design of synthetic genes recently published in Genome Research and featured in Science? Click here.

Synthetic lethality is a genetic phenomenon in which two non-lethal mutations yield a lethal phenotype when combined. The whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. This phenomenon signifies a sharing of some vital physiological function between the two affected genes. Examples of this striking effect are valuable to geneticists and cell biologists as clues for exposing the functions of unknown genes.

The Synthetic Lethality Project at Johns Hopkins is a large-scale effort to identify synthetic lethal genetic interactions in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Our experimental approach is distinctive in that we are using microarrays as a high-throughput, genome-scale, methodology. A typical experiment yields roughly 4000 independent measurements at a time. Because the methodology is non-trivial, both from an experimental and computational point of view, we present not only our data but also our protocols and experience.

The dSLAM protocols, analysis methods, and experimental results we provide here are constantly undergoing improvement and should be regarded as a work in progress. Please check back often for updated results and information. We welcome your comments and suggestions.


"Genetic Interaction Map of Yeast"	"Technology Center for Networks and Pathways of Lysine Metabolism"	A part of the Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions