Phenotypic Descriptions of Caenorhabditis elegans Mutants and Double Mutants

Date of Award

2011

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Walstrom, Katherine

Keywords

C.elegans, Genetics, rha-7, Nucroscopy, Fluorensence

Area of Concentration

Biology

Abstract

Caenorhabditis elegans is a convenient genetic model organism. A deletion in one of the many proteins in a small-RNA mediated gene silencing pathway, rha-1, was previously found to cause sterility at restrictive temperatures (25�C) and meiotic abnormalities. To further study rha-1 in C. elegans, this mutant was compared to a phenotypically similar strain with a mutation in eri-1. A double mutant (rha-1;eri-1) was used to study the relationship between the genes and their roles in gametogenesis. Mating assays with both the males and hermaphrodites were conducted at 20�C and 25�C to compare fertility in the mutants. Dissections were made of the male and hermaphrodite gonads and were treated with anti-pH3S10 antibody, then stained with AlexaFluor Green 488, a fluorescent green dye. This antibody binds to mitotic nuclei in the distal gonad and late meiotic nuclei (both oocytes and spermatocytes) in the proximal gonad. It was found that at 20�C, rha-1 males and hermaphrodites reproduce sufficiently. At 25�C, however, the rha-1 hermaphrodites produced fewer offspring than wild-type worms, and the males were 83% sterile. The fertility of the double mutant was very similar to the eri-1 mutants of both sexes at both temperatures, but the double mutant hermaphrodites produced fewer offspring at 25�C than either single mutant strain. Dissections of the hermaphrodites revealed that the oocytes may show some strain-specific defects but differences were not able to be statistically analyzed.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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