fog-1, a Regulatory Gene Required for Specification of Spermatogenesis in the Germ Line of Caenorhabditis elegans

INVESTIGATIONS

fog-1, a Regulatory Gene Required for Specification of Spermatogenesis in the Germ Line of Caenorhabditis elegans

M. K. Barton and J. Kimble
Departments of Biochemistry and Genetics, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, and Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Graduate School, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706

In wild-type Caenorhabditis elegans, the XO male germ line makes only sperm and the XX hermaphrodite germ line makes sperm and then oocytes. In contrast, the germ line of either a male or a hermaphrodite carrying a mutation of the fog-1 (feminization of the germ line) locus is sexually transformed: cells that would normally make sperm differentiate as oocytes. However, the somatic tissues of fog-1 mutants remain unaffected. All fog-1 alleles identified confer the same phenotype. The fog-1 mutations appear to reduce fog-1 function, indicating that the wild-type fog-1 product is required for specification of a germ cell as a spermatocyte. Two lines of evidence indicate that a germ cell is determined for sex at about the same time that it enters meiosis. These include the fog-1 temperature sensitive period, which coincides in each sex with first entry into meiosis, and the phenotype of a fog-1; glp-1 double mutant. Experiments with double mutants show that fog-1 is epistatic to mutations in all other sex-determining genes tested. These results lead to the conclusion that fog-1 acts at the same level as the fem genes at the end of the sex determination pathway to specify germ cells as sperm.

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				S. Parkhurst and P. Meneely Sex determination and dosage compensation: lessons from flies and worms Science, May 13, 1994; 264(5161): 924 - 932. [Abstract] [PDF]

				S. Crittenden, E. Troemel, T. Evans, and J Kimble GLP-1 is localized to the mitotic region of the C. elegans germ line Development, January 10, 1994; 120(10): 2901 - 2911. [Abstract] [PDF]