Genetics, Vol 126, 593-605, Copyright © 1990

INVESTIGATIONS

Mutations Affecting the Meiotic and Mitotic Divisions of the Early Caenorhabditis elegans Embryo

P. E. Mains, K. J. Kemphues, S. A. Sprunger, I. A. Sulston and W. B. Wood
Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, Department of Medical Biochemistry, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 4N1 Canada

We describe interactions between maternal-effect lethal mutations in four genes of Caenorhabditis elegans whose products appear to be involved in the meiotic and mitotic divisions of the one-cell embryo. Mitosis is disrupted by two dominant temperature-sensitive gain-of-function maternal-effect lethal mutations, mei-1(ct46) and mel-26(ct61), and by recessive loss-of-function maternal-effect lethal mutations of zyg-9. The phenotypic defects resulting from these mutations are similar. Doubly mutant combinations show a strong enhancement of the maternal-effect lethality under semipermissive conditions, suggesting that the mutant gene products interact. We isolated 15 dominant suppressors of the gain-of-function mutation mei-1(ct46). Thirteen of these suppressors are apparently intragenic, but 11 of them suppress in trans as well as cis. Two extragenic suppressors define a new gene, mei-2. The suppressor mutations in these two genes also result in recessive maternal-effect lethality, but with meiotic rather than mitotic defects. Surprisingly, most of these suppressors are also able to suppress mel-26(ct61) in addition to mei-1(ct46). The products of the four genes mei-1, mei-2, zyg-9 and mel-26 could be responsible for some of the specialized features that distinguish the meiotic from the mitotic divisions in the one-cell embryo.

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