Worm Breeder's Gazette 12(2): 18 (January 1, 1992)
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.
q276 ,a tra-2 mutation isolated by Tim Schedl, is unique among tra-2 mutations in producing XX males that can mate. I have found q276 useful in handling recessive X-linked mutations that prevent hemizygous males from mating. tra-1 mutations have long been used for this purpose, but the fertility of tra-1 XX males, while finite, is low. In contrast, tra-2 ( q276 )XX males mate and sire progeny efficiently. For instance, in one cross 20 male (i.e., tra-2 )self progeny of tra-2 /+; pha-2 unc-1 /++hermaphrodites were placed on a plate with 5 che-2 hermaphrodites. One day later all 25 were transferred to a new plate, and the day after that removed. 15/16 hermaphrodites picked at random two days later from the second plate were cross progeny. Efficient outcrossing made this construction much easier, since che-2 has no obvious dissecting scope phenotype, and only one of three cross progeny was expected to be the desired che-2 / pha-2 unc-1 heterozygote. This result is typical of several such crosses.