Worm Breeder's Gazette 7(2): 69
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 the wild-type N2 , an E.C. 3.1.1.2. arylesterase activity has been revealed in the entire proteins extracted by means of sonication without the help of any detergent. The total activity of the wild-type for adult hermaphrodites is 148 International Units/liter/mg of proteins. The filtration on Sephadex gel and the electrophoresis have showed that the greater part of this activity (80% to 85% ) amounted to about 75,000 daltons, the other one (15% to 20%) to about 120,000 - 150,000 daltons. Forty mutants that can resist a substance inhibiting the E.C. activities, have been isolated. These resistance mutants can be put together into 3 groups according to their total activitie: 100% , 85% and 50% of the rate of activity of the wild-type. The reproductive potential of the mutants belonging to the last two groups is lower than that of the wild-type (decrease of 80%). The function of a certain number of molecular forms with an E.C. 3. 1.1.2. activity may be considered as far as reproduction is concerned.