Genetic enhancers.

A genetic enhancer is a mutation in one gene that intensifies the phenotype caused by a mutation in another gene. The phenotype of the double mutant is much stronger than the summation of the single mutant phenotypes. The isolation of enhancers can lead to the identification of interacting genes, including genes that act redundantly with respect to each other. Examples in Caenorhabditis elegans of dominant enhancers are presented first, followed by a review of recessive enhancers of null mutations. In some of these cases, the interacting genes are related in structure and function, but in other cases, the interacting genes are nonhomologous. Recessive enhancers of non-null mutations can also be useful. A powerful advance for the identification of recessive enhancers is genome-wide screening based on RNA interference.