Mutations That Affect Neural Cell Lineages and Cell Fates during the Development of the Nematode Caenorhabditis elegans (original) (raw)

  1. H.R. Horvitz,
  2. P.W. Sternberg,
  3. I.S. Greenwald,
  4. W. Fixsen, and
  5. H.M. Ellis
  6. Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139

Excerpt

Genetics provides one approach toward a molecular understanding of the structure, functioning, and development of the nervous system. For example, the isolation and characterization of mutant animals can indicate when and where particular molecules are utilized in the nervous system as well as what functions those molecules perform. More specifically, since the primary effect of a mutation is to disrupt the action of a gene, the determination of the defect(s) induced by that mutation can reveal the time(s) and site(s) at which that gene—and thus, in general, the RNA or protein product of that gene—functions. In principle, an examination of mutants should reveal whether there are molecules that are specifically involved in the development of particular neuron types, of particular sets of neuron types, or of neurons in general. Such information should indicate how molecules that function during development are partitioned either within the nervous system or within both nervous...