Worm Breeder's Gazette 7(2): 29a
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.
In order to identify the products of fer genes that act during spermiogenesis we have cloned several sperm-specific genes. This was done by preparing a library of 15-20 kb Sau3A partial fragments cloned onto lambda1059. The library was differentially screened by hybridization to cDNAs prepared to male poly A+ RNA and adult hermaphrodite poly A+ RNA. Nineteen phage were isolated that were male specific after screening 16,000 phage. Eleven of these contain genes for the major sperm protein (MSP). Most of these phage do not contain overlapping DNA fragments so the MSP must be coded for by a multi-gene family. Genes for other male specific transcripts are found on the other phage, but the gene products have not yet been identified. If we are lucky, some will be the sperm-specific proteins that we have raised anti-sera against.