Abstract
During the development of the nervous system, the migration of many cells and axons is guided by extracellular molecules. These molecules bind to receptors at the tips of the growth cones of migrating axons and trigger intracellular signalling to steer the axons along the correct trajectories. Previous work has identified a novel mutant, enu-3 (enhancer of Unc), that enhances the motor neuron axon outgrowth defects observed in strains of Caenorhabditis elegans that lack either the UNC-5 receptor or its ligand UNC-6/Netrin, enu-3 single mutants have weak motor neuron axon migration defects. Both outgrowth defects of double mutants and axon migration defects of enu-3 mutants were rescued by expression of the H04D03.1 gene product. Enu-3/H04D03.1 encodes a novel predicted putative trans-membrane protein of 204 amino acids. ENU-3 is expressed weakly expressed in many cell bodies along the ventral cord, including those of the DA and DB motor neurons.
Highlights
MethodsBristol N2 was designated as the wild-type strain (Brenner, 1974)
A visual enhancer screen was conducted in an unc-5(e53) background in order to identify mutants in genes that work parallel to the UNC-6/Netrin pathway in the guidance of the DA and DB motor neurons out of their cell bodies in the ventral cord
We found to our surprise that the motor axon outgrowth defects were LESS in the unc-40(e1430);unc-5(e53) double mutant than in unc-5(e53) alone while unc-40(e1430) had no motor axon outgrowth defects at all
Summary
Bristol N2 was designated as the wild-type strain (Brenner, 1974). The mutants that were used in this study include: LG I: unc-40(e1430); LG II: clr-1(e1745ts); LG III: enu-3(rq1), enu-. Genetic Crosses: All crosses were performed at 20°C with the exception of any crosses with clr-1(e1745ts). Crosses were performed at 16°C to allow for permissive mating. Crosses were typically performed by crossing him-5(e1420); dpy-20(e1282) males in order to generate F1 males of one of the mutants to be crossed. The resulting F1 males were crossed with the second strain and usually 10 of the resulting F1 heterozygote hermaphrodites were picked onto individual 4 cm plates. Hermaphrodites were allowed to self fertilize and the resulting progeny were screened for F2 hermaphrodites which appeared to have visual traits of both parental mutants
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