Worm Breeder's Gazette 11(3): 17
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.
Nonerythyroid spectrin (fodrin) and its associated proteins (protein 4.1 and ankyrin) have been implicated in the establishment of specialized membrane-cytoskeletal domains in differentiating cells. Since the spectrin family of proteins is phylogenetically widely distributed (Giebelhaus et al, 1987, Byers et al., 1987), we have begun to investigate the expression and role of possible fodrin-like genes in C. elegans. Southern blots of genomic DNA from C. elegans and C. briggsae were hybridized with a 1.2 kb human alpha-fodrin clone under moderate stringency (Hybridization: 30% formamide, 5xSSC, 48 C. Washes: 2xSSC, 1% SDS, 55 C). Two distinct bands were seen from DNA digested with EcoRI or HindIII from both C. elegans and C. briggsae. We are currently screening genomic libraries with the human alpha-fodrin clone to isolate clones which may contain C. elegans spectrin-like genes.