Worm Breeder's Gazette 8(2): 6

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.

Isolation of New Aldicarb Resistant Mutants in Bergerac

K.L. Peterson, R.L Russell

We have isolated several Aldicarb resistant mutants in Bergerac 
using the heat shock mutagenesis protocol of Scott Emmons.  We heat 
shocked 31,000 Bergerac hermaphrodites at 24 +/- 2 hours of age (at 16 
C, timed from the middle of the egg laying period) at 28 C for 16 hrs. 
After this treatment, the animals were allowed to develop at 16 C and 
divided into 60 independent lines before the commencement of egglaying.
Approximately 150,000 F1 hermaphrodites were collected, at maturity, 
these F1 were plated on 0.5mM Aldicarb and allowed to lay eggs until 
completion or death.  The F2 progeny were screened 6 to 7 days later 
for the ability to grow in the presence of the drug.  There appear to 
have been 40 independent mutational events that conferred Aldicarb 
resistance.  All the strains isolated are uncoordinated to a greater 
or lesser degree.  Three of these mutant strains showed a marked 
decrease (>10% w. t.  levels) of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) upon 
enzymatic assay and at least two of these strains have failed to 
complement cha-1; IV, the structural gene for ChAT.  It is believed 
that if these new mutations are caused by transposition of Tc1 into 
cha-1 they could be valuable in the isolation and cloning of the gene.