Now that the sequences of many genomes are available, methods are required for the rapid identification of functional genes. We describe here a simple system for the isolation of genes that function in the tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha)-mediated pathway of apoptosis, using RNA helicase-associated ribozyme libraries with randomized substrate-binding arms. Because target-site accessibility considerably limits the effective use of intracellular ribozymes, the effectiveness of a conventional ribozyme library has been low. To overcome this obstacle, we attached to ribozymes an RNA motif (poly(A)-tail) able to interact with endogenous RNA helicase(s) so that the resulting helicase-attached, hybrid ribozymes can more easily attack target sites regardless of their secondary or tertiary structures. When the phenotype of cells changes upon introduction of a ribozyme library, genes responsible for these changes may be identified by sequencing the active ribozyme clones. In the case of TNF-alpha-mediated apoptosis, when a ribozyme library was introduced into MCF-7 cells, surviving clones were completely or partially resistant to TNF-alpha-induced apoptosis. We identified many pro-apoptotic genes and partial sequences of previously uncharacterized genes using this method. Our gene discovery system should be generally applicable to the identification of functional genes in various systems.