PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Yook, Karen
AU  - Hodgkin, Jonathan
TI  - <em>Mos1</em> Mutagenesis Reveals a Diversity of Mechanisms Affecting Response of <em>Caenorhabditis elegans</em> to the Bacterial Pathogen <em>Microbacterium nematophilum</em>
AID  - 10.1534/genetics.106.060087
DP  - 2007 Feb 01
TA  - Genetics
PG  - 681--697
VI  - 175
IP  - 2
4099  - http://www.genetics.org/content/175/2/681.short
4100  - http://www.genetics.org/content/175/2/681.full
SO  - Genetics2007 Feb 01; 175
AB  - A specific host–pathogen interaction exists between Caenorhabditis elegans and the gram-positive bacterium Microbacterium nematophilum. This bacterium is able to colonize the rectum of susceptible worms and induces a defensive tail-swelling response in the host. Previous mutant screens have identified multiple loci that affect this interaction. Some of these loci correspond to known genes, but many bus genes [those with a bacterially unswollen (Bus) mutant phenotype] have yet to be cloned. We employed Mos1 transposon mutagenesis as a means of more rapidly cloning bus genes and identifying new mutants with altered pathogen response. This approach revealed new infection-related roles for two well-characterized and much-studied genes, egl-8 and tax-4. It also allowed the cloning of a known bus gene, bus-17, which encodes a predicted galactosyltransferase, and of a new bus gene, bus-19, which encodes a novel, albeit ancient, protein. The results illustrate advantages and disadvantages of Mos1 transposon mutagenesis in this system.