Worm Breeder's Gazette 4(1): 15

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.

Frozen Mutagenized Worms Remain a Good Source for Mutant Isolation

K. Lew, J. Miwa

Mutagenesis is hazardous not only to animals to be mutagenized, but 
to ourselves as well.  We, being carcinogen-/mutagen-phobics, have 
developed a procedure that would alleviate some hazard as well as 
phobia, by mutagenizing a large stock of N2 or other strains and 
freezing them away for future use.
Strains to be mutagenized are grown on Petri plates until bacteria 
are nearly exhausted, that is, just before the end of the exponential 
growth phase.  The worms are washed from the plates and treated with 
ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) as described by Brenner (1974).  The 
mutagenized worms free of mutagen are frozen in liquid N2.  They are 
thawed out as needed.  A good batch of mutagenized stocks can be 
permanently stored.  Most survivors are younger than L3.  Forward 
mutation rate, as measured by dumpy and uncoordinated worms, indicates 
that such survivors remain a good source of mutants.  This procedure 
should also work with other mutagens.