Identification and characterization of a putative cyclic nucleotide-gated channel, CNG-1, in C. elegans.
Cyclic nucleotide-gated (CNG) channels encoded by the tax-4 and tax-2 genes are required for chemosensing and thermosensing in the nematode C. elegans. We identified a gene in the C. elegans genome, which we designated cng-1, that is highly homologous to tax-4. Partial CNG-1 protein tagged with green fluorescent protein was expressed in several sensory neurons of the amphid. We created a deletion mutant of cng-1, cng-1 (jh111), to investigate its in vivo function. The mutant worms had no detectable abnormalities in terms of their basic behavior or morphology. Whereas tax-4 and tax-2 mutants failed to respond to water-soluble or volatile chemical attractants, the cng-1 null mutant exhibited normal chemotaxis to such chemicals and a tax-4;cng-1 double mutant had a similar phenotype to tax-4 single mutants. Interestingly, cng-1 and tax-4 had a synergistic effect on brood size.
Cho
Suk-Woo
SW
Department of Life Science, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Gwangju 500-712, Korea.
Cho
Jeong-Hoon
JH
Song
Hyun-Ok
HO
Park
Chul-Seung
CS
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000502:physiology; D002633:Chemotaxis / Q000235:genetics; D017353:Gene Deletion; D007473:Ion Channels / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000502:physiology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism; D009812:Odorants; D012098:Reproduction
C502366:CNG-1 protein, C elegans; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D007473:Ion Channels; C102183:tax-2 protein, C elegans; C102184:tax-4 protein, C elegans