Dear Tetrahymena Researchers,

As described at the FASEB ciliate meeting in Crete, I have funding from the NIH to generate germline
Tetrahymena thermophila gene knockouts (neo4 gene replacement) as a free service to members of
the community.  The strains will be confirmed by PCR but not made homozygous by genomic
exclusion mating.  They will be deposited at and distributed by the Tetrahymena Stock Center.  The
goal is to generate about 1000 knockouts over the next two years.  If there are genes you want
knocked out, please email me a list of their TTHERM numbers and I will take it from there.  Please
keep in mind that there will be a long list of targets requested by the community and your KOs may
not be made for up to two years, so if there is an urgent need for a particular KO, you should
consider making it yourself.  Also, please prioritize your list.  The order of generating KOs will not be
"first come, first served", so there is no need to rush me a list ASAP.   To facilitate depositing KO
strains at the stock center and proper annotation at TGD, please assign a gene name to each target,
using the guidance provided at this site (http://ciliate.org/index.php/show/editguide) and/or advice
from the folks at TGD and the stock center.

Please contact me with any questions.
Regards,
Bob Coyne ([log in to unmask])