Worm Breeder's Gazette 2(2): 23b

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.

X-linked Recessive Lethals

P. Meneely, B. Herman

We are identifying recessive lethal mutations in the region of unc-3 
of the X chromosome, using DP(X;V)1 as a balancer.  To date, 21 such 
mutants have been found following EMS mutagenesis.  Sixteen of these 
have been fully complemented and belong to eleven genes; repeats have 
been found in three genes.  Several mutants have been mapped and 
define genes on each side of unc-3 and unc-7.  Both complementation 
and mapping are continuing.  We estimate that there are 25 genes in 
the region covered by the duplication.
We have so far only roughly described the phenotypes of the mutants. 
Five of the 21 seem to be embryonic lethals; four of these five fall 
into one complementation group, although certain pairs of these 
mutants show interallelic complementation.  Eleven mutants are 
arrested at various larval stages.  One mutant appears sex-specific in 
that hermaphrodites die as juveniles but males develop to adults.  One 
mutant shows a strong maternal effect: the homozygous mutant progeny 
of a heterozygote are fertile, but their progeny die before adulthood. 
The other mutants are sterile adults.  One of these appears to make 
defective sperm.