Worm Breeder's Gazette 1(1): 19
These abstracts should not be cited in bibliographies. Material contained herein should be treated as personal communication and should be cited as such only with the consent of the author.
When concentrated (~4 M) concentric rings of either NaCl or fructose are laid down on a Petri plate, C. elegans placed inside the rings will avoid them and remain confined to the center of the plate. We have isolated seven mutants defective in this response by picking rare individuals crossing both rings on a two-ring plate. Three mutants were isolated against NaCl and four against fructose, but all seven fail to avoid both substances, leading us to believe that the response is to high osmotic strength. We are still characterizing these mutants genetically, but so far they appear to identify 2 sex-linked and 4 autosomal genes. Thermotaxis responses of the mutants appear normal, and we hope to characterize their chemotaxis responses shortly. Preliminary serial sectioning of one of the mutants indicates a severe disruption of the LSM (cephalic) endings of the snout.