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Mutations affecting the meiotic and mito ... y Caenorhabditis elegans embryo
Mutations affecting the meiotic and mitotic divisions of the early Caenorhabditis elegans embryo.
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We describe interactions between maternal-effect lethal mutations in four genes of Caenorhabditis elegans whose products appear to be involved in the meiotic and mitotic divisions of the one-cell embryo. Mitosis is disrupted by two dominant temperature-sensitive gain-of-function maternal-effect lethal mutations, mei-1(ct46) and mel-26(ct61), and by recessive loss-of-function maternal-effect lethal mutations of zyg-9. The phenotypic defects resulting from these mutations are similar. Doubly mutant combinations show a strong enhancement of the maternal-effect lethality under semipermissive conditions, suggesting that the mutant gene products interact. We isolated 15 dominant suppressors of the gain-of-function mutation mei-1(ct46). Thirteen of these suppressors are apparently intragenic, but 11 of them suppress in trans as well as cis. Two extragenic suppressors define a new gene, mei-2. The suppressor mutations in these two genes also result in recessive maternal-effect lethality, but with meiotic rather than mitotic defects. Surprisingly, most of these suppressors are also able to suppress mel-26(ct61) in addition to mei-1(ct46). The products of the four genes mei-1, mei-2, zyg-9 and mel-26 could be responsible for some of the specialized features that distinguish the meiotic from the mitotic divisions in the one-cell embryo.
Mains PE, Kemphues KJ, Sprunger SA, Sulston IA, Wood WB
Genetics
1990-11-01 00:00
126
3
593-605
Alleles,Animals,Caenorhabditis,Chromosome Mapping,Epistasis, Genetic,Genes,Genes, Recessive,Meiosis,Mitosis,Mutation,Phenotype,Suppression, Genetic,Temperature
Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder 80309
Genetics
NIGMS GM10701, NIGMS GM33763, NICHD HD11762
0016-6731
1339
True
2249759
