Worm Breeder's Gazette 10(3): 140

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.

Male Recombination in Caenorhabditis elegans

Monique-Claire Zetka and Ann Rose

Rose and Baillie (1979) characterized recombination in the 
hermaphrodite and found it varied with temperature and age.  We have 
undertaken a similar study to characterize recombination in the male.  
To examine the effects of age, dpy-5(e61) 50)/++ 
males were mated to 5 homozygous hermaphrodites every 12 hours for 108 
hours and the outcross progeny was scored.  A recombination frequency 
of 1.14%(95%C.I.1.11-1.16) was observed for this interval, a 33% 
decrease compared to the hermaphrodite control.  This frequency also 
showed variation with age.  Intervals outside the cluster on LGI are 
also being studied in order to examine the possibility of regional 
effects.
We were also interested in examining recombination in hermaphrodite 
sperm.  Brenner (1974) used sex-linked markers in the egg to determine 
recombination frequencies in both germlines, which he found to be 
approximately the same.  Males of the genotype dpy18 hT2/dpy-5 unc-13 
were mated to dpy-5  hermaphrodites every 24 hours 
over a 96 hour period.  The translocation acts as a cross-over 
suppressor in the male and scoring the male progeny gives a direct 
measure of the recombination frequency in the oocytes.  This number 
can then be used to calculate the frequency in the hermaphrodite sperm.
Initial experiments indicate the recombination frequency in the two 
germlines is not the same in the autosomal interval tested.  Further 
experiments will examine the effects of rec-1, a general recombination 
enhancer, on recombination in the male.