Mutations Affecting Nerve Attachment of Caenorhabditis elegans

Mutations Affecting Nerve Attachment of Caenorhabditis elegans

Go Shioi^a,b, Michinari Shoji^a, Masashi Nakamura^a, Takeshi Ishihara^c, Isao Katsura^c, Hajime Fujisawa^a,b, and Shin Takagi^a
^a Division of Biological Science, Nagoya University Graduate School of Science, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8602, Japan,
^b Structural Biology Center, National Institute of Genetics, Mishima 411-8540, Japan
^c Core Research for Evolution Science and Technology (CREST) of Japan Science and Technology Corporation (JST), 100-8959, Tokyo, Japan

Corresponding author: Shin Takagi, Division of Biological Science, Nagoya University Graduate School of Science, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8602, Japan., i45116a{at}nucc.cc.nagoya-u.ac.jp (E-mail)

Communicating editor: R. K. HERMAN

Using a pan-neuronal GFP marker, a morphological screen wasperformed to detect Caenorhabditis elegans larval lethal mutantswith severely disorganized major nerve cords. We recovered andcharacterized 21 mutants that displayed displacement or detachmentof the ventral nerve cord from the body wall (Ven: ventral cordabnormal). Six mutations defined three novel genetic loci: ven-1,ven-2, and ven-3. Fifteen mutations proved to be alleles ofpreviously identified muscle attachment/positioning genes, mup-4,mua-1, mua-5, and mua-6. All the mutants also displayed muscleattachment/positioning defects characteristic of mua/mup mutants.The pan-neuronal GFP marker also revealed that mutants of othermua/mup loci, such as mup-1, mup-2, and mua-2, exhibited theVen defect. The hypodermis, the excretory canal, and the gonadwere morphologically abnormal in some of the mutants. The pleiotropicnature of the defects indicates that ven and mua/mup genes arerequired generally for the maintenance of attachment of tissuesto the body wall in C. elegans.

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