Analyzing Early Embryonic Cell Division Defects in Caenorhabditis Elegans

Abstract

Searching for and analyzing novel mutant phenotypes in early cell division of C. elegans allows researcher to infer how the wild-type gene/ protein normally functions after observing defects. To investigate these phenotypes, three different temperature sensitive (ts) mutants (orl786ts; lin-2 (el309), orl700ts; /iu-2 (el309), and orl578ts; Jin-2 (el309)) were analyzed. Using Nomarsk.i/ DIC videomicroscopy, phenotypic analysis was completed to record the mutant embryos from the 1-cell to 4-cell embryo stage. After following up the phenotypic analysis with outcrosses and re-analysis, the mutants showed to have several defects prolonged durations within stages of the cell cycle. This could be a result of mutations in DNA replication machinery or of cell cycle regulator. Further tests can be done to isolate the origin of the mutation and permit a better understanding of the genes in which the mutations occurred.