An improved in vivo tethering assay with single molecule FISH reveals that a nematode Nanos enhances reporter expression and mRNA stability.

Robust methods are critical for testing the in vivo regulatory mechanism of RNA binding proteins. Here we report improvement of a protein-mRNA tethering assay to probe the function of an RNA binding protein in its natural context within the adult germline. The assay relies on a dual reporter expressing two mRNAs from a single promoter and resolved by trans-splicing.