More Sex-Determination Mutants of CAENORHABDITIS ELEGANS (original) (raw)

Abstract

Sex determination in Caenorhabditis elegans is controlled by the X chromosome: autosome ratio, i.e. 2A;XX animals are hermaphrodite, and 2A;XO animals are male. A procedure for isolating 2A;XO animals that are transformed into hermaphrodites has been developed. Nine mutations causing this transformation have been obtained: eight are recessive, and all of these fall into a new autosomal complementation group, her-1 V. The remaining mutation (her-2) is dominant and has a genetic map location similar to that of tra-1 III. Recessive mutations of tra-1 cause the reverse transformation, transforming 2A;XX animals into males. Therefore, the her-2 mutation may result in constitutive expression of tra-1. Mutations in her-1 are without effect on XX animals, but the her-2 mutation prevents sperm production in both XX and XO animals, in addition to its effect on the sexual phenotype of XO animals. The epistatic relationships between tra and her genes are used to deduce a model for the action of these genes in controlling sex determination.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (1.1 MB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Cline T. W. A male-specific lethal mutation in Drosophila melanogaster that transforms sex. Dev Biol. 1979 Oct;72(2):266–275. doi: 10.1016/0012-1606(79)90117-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Hodgkin J. A., Brenner S. Mutations causing transformation of sexual phenotype in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Genetics. 1977 Jun;86(2 Pt 1):275–287. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Hodgkin J., Horvitz H. R., Brenner S. Nondisjunction Mutants of the Nematode CAENORHABDITIS ELEGANS. Genetics. 1979 Jan;91(1):67–94. doi: 10.1093/genetics/91.1.67. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Horvitz H. R., Brenner S., Hodgkin J., Herman R. K. A uniform genetic nomenclature for the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Mol Gen Genet. 1979 Sep;175(2):129–133. doi: 10.1007/BF00425528. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Kimble J., Hirsh D. The postembryonic cell lineages of the hermaphrodite and male gonads in Caenorhabditis elegans. Dev Biol. 1979 Jun;70(2):396–417. doi: 10.1016/0012-1606(79)90035-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Klass M., Wolf N., Hirsh D. Development of the male reproductive system and sexual transformation in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Dev Biol. 1976 Aug;52(1):1–18. doi: 10.1016/0012-1606(76)90002-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Madl J. E., Herman R. K. Polyploids and sex determination in Caenorhabditis elegans. Genetics. 1979 Oct;93(2):393–402. doi: 10.1093/genetics/93.2.393. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Marsh J. L., Wieschaus E. Is sex determination in germ line and soma controlled by separate genetic mechanisms? Nature. 1978 Mar 16;272(5650):249–251. doi: 10.1038/272249a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. McCarrey J. R., Abbott U. K. Mechanisms of genetic sex determination, gonadal sex differentiation, and germ-cell development in animals. Adv Genet. 1979;20:217–290. doi: 10.1016/s0065-2660(08)60547-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Nelson G. A., Lew K. K., Ward S. Intersex, a temperature-sensitive mutant of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Dev Biol. 1978 Oct;66(2):386–409. doi: 10.1016/0012-1606(78)90247-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]