title: The C. elegans septin genes, unc-59 and unc-61, are required for normal postembryonic cytokineses and morphogenesis but have no essential function in embryogenesis.
abstract: Septins have been shown to play important roles in cytokinesis in diverse organisms ranging from yeast to mammals. In this study, we show that both the unc-59 and unc-61 loci encode Caenorhabditis elegans septins. Genomic database searches indicate that unc-59 and unc-61 are probably the only septin genes in the C. elegans genome. UNC-59 and UNC-61 localize to the leading edge of cleavage furrows and eventually reside at the midbody. Analysis of unc-59 and unc-61 mutants revealed that each septin requires the presence of the other for localization to the cytokinetic furrow. Surprisingly, unc-59 and unc-61 mutants generally have normal embryonic development; however, defects were observed in post-embryonic development affecting the morphogenesis of the vulva, male tail, gonad, and sensory neurons. These defects can be at least partially attributed to failures in post-embryonic cytokineses although our data also suggest other possible roles for septins. unc-59 and unc-61 double mutants show similar defects to each of the single mutants.
authors.affiliation: Cellular Molecular Biology Program, Laboratory of Molecular Biology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706 USA.
authors.forename: T Q
authors.initials: TQ
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sawa
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Okano
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: White
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000166:cytology / Q000196:embryology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D002453:Cell Cycle / Q000235:genetics*; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D017931:DNA Primers; D019204:GTP-Binding Proteins; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009024:Morphogenesis; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins; D017931:DNA Primers; C418245:UNC-59 protein, C elegans; C418244:unc-61 protein, C elegans; D019204:GTP-Binding Proteins