title: Caenorhabditis elegans Chk2-like gene is essential for meiosis but dispensable for DNA repair.
abstract: A Chk2-like gene was identified in the genome of Caenorhabditis elegans. The putative gene product, termed Ce-chk-2 consists of 450 amino acid residues, and shows good homology with the Chk2/Cds1 gene family. The results of RNA-mediated interference (RNAi) indicated that the F1 generation from dsRNA injected animals grew to adulthood, but approximately 95% of their eggs (F2) died during early embryogenesis. Among the few surviving progeny, males (XO animals) arose at an abnormally high frequency (30%). In addition, 12 univalents were observed in full grown oocytes of the F1, while six bivalents were normally observed in wild-type oocytes. Ce-chk-2 gene expression increased in the adult stage, and their expression level decreased in the glp-4 mutant, which is defective in germ line proliferation. The radiation sensitivity of F1 embryos carrying Ce-chk-2 RNAi was not significantly affected.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Genetic Ecology, Tohoku University, 2-1-1 Katahira, Sendai 980-8577, Japan. ahigashi@ige.tohoku.ac.jp
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Higashitani
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Aoki
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mori
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sasagawa
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Takanami
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Takahashi
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000196:embryology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000528:radiation effects; D064447:Checkpoint Kinase 2; D004260:DNA Repair / Q000235:genetics*; D015870:Gene Expression; D006801:Humans; D008540:Meiosis / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011494:Protein Kinases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000032:analysis; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D014162:Transfection
chemical_list: D012333:RNA, Messenger; D011494:Protein Kinases; D064447:Checkpoint Kinase 2; C578634:CHEK2 protein, human; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases