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.
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.