Worm Breeder's Gazette 7(2): 39
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 recessive mutation e1883 (lin-23) on linkage group II causes extra cell divisions in probably all postembryonic lineages, including an extra round of strictly nuclear division in the intestine. In the hypodermis, the number and timing of the extra divisions vary but, generally, these are of the form [See Figure 1] except in the L2 when the number of seam cells increases in both mutants and wild types. All four descendents of M.dl/r undergo additional divisions but apparently only one coelomocyte is produced, the other cells being muscles. This suggests that the commitment to becoming a coelomyocyte is segregated to only one daughter at each division. The animals reach adulthood and, despite abnormalities in the gonad lineage including extra distal tip cells, produce sperm, oocytes, and, sometimes, fertile eggs which develop abnormally. The Lin-23 product may be a repressor of cell cycling.