Worm Breeder's Gazette 9(3): 30
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We have continued to isolate and characterize mec mutants in TR679
[mut- 2(r459)]. Our progress to date
is:
{Figure 1}
Thus, nine of the 16 genes for which we've obtained touch
insensitive mutants are represented in this set. (In addition, we have
isolated two unc-55 mutants and several unc-31 mutants in these TR679
screens.) The outcrossing and analysis of these mutations is in
various degrees of completion. We have used these mutations to isolate
the mec-3 gene (WBG 9 #1 p. 31) and the mec-14 gene (see this issue).
In addition, a single Tc1-containing fragment cosegregates with the
one mec-2 mutation so far studied.
As indicated in the table, we have obtained spontaneous revertants
in a number of the TR679-derived mec strains. Four of these were found
by screening the original mec isolates before outcrossing. This was
usually difficult as the strains were often unhealthy and had low
brood sizes. Recently, however, we have taken advantage of the mut-2
mutator activity mapped near unc-13 by Mike Finney. By eliminating a
unc-13(e51) chromosome, we made mut-2:mec doubles using outcrossed
strains with spontaneous mutations in mec-2,
lting strains were quite healthy
and had reasonable brood sizes. All three strains have reverted to
wild type will relative ease (i.e. a single afternoon's worth of
screening). One advantage of this method is that Mec and nonMec
siblings are often healthy enough to grow up to generate DNA for
comparison.