Worm Breeder's Gazette 10(2): 99
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.
I have previously reported on progress toward the molecular cloning of the unc-30 and unc-31 genes (WBG 10(1), CSH '87). Mutants in unc- 30 have abnormal VD and DD motorneurons which have misplaced processes and fail to stain with an anti-GABA antibody, and abnormal PVP neurons which fail to stain with an antibody from mouse. Mutants in unc-31 ( aka egl-22) are lethargic, egg-laying defective, and pumping constitutive. I have now placed limits on the physical extents of these genes by transformation rescue of mutants (see group article,this issue). Unc- 31 had already been located by standard methods. It has now been shown to lie entirely within the lambda clone CB#RH1A. Unc-30 had been shown to lie between two genetic markers on the physical map within a region of about 150kb. Attempts to locate the gene by genomic Southern blotting of mutants were foiled by the presence of polymorphisms and repeat sequences scattered throughout the region. Cosmids spanning the region were injected, and two were found to rescue. Additional experiments have now shown unc-30 to lie entirely within the region of overlap of the lambda clones CB#RH12 and 17. I am now engaged in searching for transcripts and trying to rescue mutants with smaller pieces of DNA. [See Figure 1]