Dominant suppressors of a muscle mutant define an essential gene of Caenorhabditis elegans.
The sup-11 1 locus of C. elegans was defined by rare dominant suppressors of unc-93(e1500) III, a mutation that affects muscle structure. All ten of these dominant suppressors have a recessive "scrawny" phenotype. Two additional classes of sup-11 alleles were identified. One class, null alleles, was obtained by reversion of the dominant suppressor activity. These null alleles are recessive embryonic lethals, indicating that sup-11 is an essential gene. Members of the second class, rare semidominant revertants of the "scrawny" phenotype, are partial suppressors of unc-93(e1500). The genetic properties of the dominant suppressor mutations suggest that they are rare missense mutations that confer a novel activity to the sup-11 protein. We consider some of the ways that sup-11 alleles might suppress unc-93(e1500), including the possibilities that the altered sup-11 proteins restore function to a protein complex or are modified products of a gene that is a member of an unc-93 gene family.
D000818:Animals; D002107:Caenorhabditis / Q000235:genetics*; D005799:Genes, Dominant; D005804:Genes, Lethal; D009132:Muscles / Q000502:physiology*; D009154:Mutation; D010641:Phenotype; D013489:Suppression, Genetic