Worm Breeder's Gazette 13(4): 84b (October 1, 1994)
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.
Dept. of Biology, Nelson Labs, Rutgers University, Piscataway NJ 08855.
We have identified a 4.8 kb DNA fragment from the cosmid C35G11 that rescues vab-8 ( e1017 )upon microinjection. This fragment lies about 5 kb from the 3' end of myo-3 .We have begun sequencing this region, but have not yet identified a vab-8 open reading frame or any relationships to known DNA or protein sequences. vab-8 ( e1017 )mutant animals occasionally show secondary vulval protrusions (Way et al., 1992). Generation of the protrusions appears to be independent of the anchor cell. The second protrusion is always located posterior to the vulva, and often rather far from the anchor cell. lin-3 ( e1417 ); vab-8 double mutant animals still sometimes show two protrusions. Also, 40% of lin-9 ( n112 ); vab-8 double mutant animals show ectopic vulval blips, compared to 12% of lin-9 (+); vab-8 ( e1017 )animals. (We are currently constructing vab-8 doubles with lin-8 and let-60 .)Together these results suggest that the secondary vulval blips seen in e1017 are due to a defect in the tertiary fate-promoting activity from the hypodermis. It is possible that this defect is an indirect (and unprofound) consequence of the CAN cell migration defect, which causes a defect in excretion ultimately causing the posterior half of the body to wither. The posterior part of the body might simply be generally impaired, so that the hypodermal signal to the Pn.p cells is poorly transmitted.