title: Characterization of mutations induced by ethyl methanesulfonate, UV, and trimethylpsoralen in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans.
abstract: The genome project of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is completed. It is important and useful to disrupt nematode genes to know their function. We treated wild-type animals with potential candidates for mutagens for reverse genetics, EMS (ethyl methanesulfonate), short-wavelength UV, and long-wavelength UV in the presence of TMP (trimethylpsoralen). We estimated forward mutation rates by counting the occurrence of a marker unc-22 mutation. We found that the forward mutation rate by TMP/UV could be comparable with EMS by improving the frequency one order higher than before. We next isolated mutants of another marker gene ben-1 and examined the probability for the deletion mutations by PCR and sequencing. Deletion mutations were found only by TMP/UV method, which suggested TMP/UV is the choice for deletion mutagenesis among these methods. As a pilot experiment, we could isolate actual deletion mutations at a much higher frequency than previously.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Tokyo Women's Medical University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gengyo-Ando
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mitani
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics* / Q000528:radiation effects; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D018509:DNA, Helminth / Q000235:genetics; D005020:Ethyl Methanesulfonate / Q000633:toxicity; D017238:Genes, Helminth / Q000187:drug effects / Q000528:radiation effects; D005819:Genetic Markers; D009154:Mutation; D010641:Phenotype; D017384:Sequence Deletion; D014307:Trioxsalen / Q000633:toxicity; D014466:Ultraviolet Rays / Q000009:adverse effects
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D018509:DNA, Helminth; D005819:Genetic Markers; D005020:Ethyl Methanesulfonate; D014307:Trioxsalen