Worm Breeder's Gazette 14(2): 82 (February 1, 1996)
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.
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Louisiana State University Medical Center, Shreveport, LA 71130-33932
Mutations in the pag-3 gene cause ectopic expression of touch neuron genes mec-7, mec-7LacZ, mec-2gfp, mec-4LacZ and mec-9LacZ in the lineal sisters of the ALM touch neurons, the BDU neurons. pag-3 mutants also show a reverse kinker uncoordinated phenotype (Genetics 142, 141-147). To clone pag-3, we made a phage library from YAC Y37H4 that rescued both pag-3 mutant phenotypes. By transformation rescue, we identified a single phage and subsequently a 5 kb fragment from that phage with full rescuing ability. A 1.5 kb transcript was detected in a developmental northern blot. Preliminary analysis of both cDNA and genomic DNA sequences indicates that pag-3 encodes a protein with five C2H2-type zinc fingers that have strong homology to the zinc-fingers of the rat protein GFI-1. We have also performed mosaic analysis on pag-3 using the method of Bob Herman (Genetics 133, 527-541) and showed that pag-3(+) is required in the AB.p lineage to prevent the Unc phenotype and in AB.a lineage to prevent the misexpression phenotype. The motor neurons are derived from the AB.p lineage and the BDU neurons are derived from the AB.a lineage. Preliminary expression analyses show that pag-3lacZ is expressed in the BDU neurons, cord motor neurons and additional cells in the head and tail.