Worm Breeder's Gazette 14(5): 24 (February 1, 1997)

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.

A Cosmid Transgenic Library for C. elegans- Another Update

Diana Janke1, Jacquie Schein1, The Ha1, Norman Franz1, Nigel O'Neil1, Greg Vatcher1, Helen Stewart1, Lynnette Kuervers1, David Baillie1, Ann Rose2

1 Institute of Molecular Biolgy and Biochemistry, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada, V5A 1S6
2 Department of Medical Genetics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6T 1Z3

Since our last report in WBG 14(2), we have expanded the cosmid transgenic library to include other chromosomes. Beyond the 147 cosmid trangenics we have constucted for chromosome III, we have now constructed transgenic strains for 61 cosmids from chromosome IV, 17 from chromosome X, 12 from chromosome I, 10 from chromosome II, and 6 from chromosome V. This brings the total number of cosmids available in transgenic strains to 253. The approximate location of these cosmids are shown as black bars on the figure below:

Our ongoing rescue attempts utilizing these cosmid transgenics have resulted in seven essential genes being placed in the interval between dpy-17 and unc-36 on chromosome III. These results are as follows:

                        Rescued                                 Rescuing 
                        Gene                    Allele          Cosmid
                        --------------------------------------------------
                        let -713                s2470           C05D11
                                                s2175           C05D11
                        let-716                 s2457           C16A3
                        let-721                 s2447           C05D11
                        let-725                 s2454           C05D11
                                                s2800           C05D11
                        let-756                 s2613           C05D11
                                                s2809           C05D11
                        let-767                 s2464           C31H11
                                                s2176           C31H11
                        let-774                 s2615           C23G10
                        mel-32                  s2518           C05D11
                        --------------------------------------------------

For more information regarding the cosmid C05D11, please refer to "SuperCosmid Strikes Again" by Greg Vatcher et al. this issue of WBG.
A list of cosmids available as transgenic strains, as well as those which are presently under construction, is available via the internet at http://darwin.mbb.sfu.ca/imbb/dbaillie/cosmid.html. Strains can be ordered by sending an e-mailed request to djanke@darwin.mbb.sfu.ca.
This work is being done in collaboration with the C. elegans Genome Sequencing labs, and with funding from the Canadian Genome Analysis and Technology Program. Lethal mutations were initially positioned on the genetic map utilizing deficiencies generated for the Genetic Toolkit Project. This Toolkit is being constructed with a grant from the NIH.