Do not add objects such as pictures, boxes, headers, footers, footnotes,. etc.. Functional expression of parasite genes in transgenic C. elegans has proved. to be very successful in some systems and is one of the most promising. applications of C. elegans to parasitic nematode research. The most common. test of in vivo parasite gene function in C. elegans is to introduce the. gene of interest into the appropriate mutant to determine whether the. parasite gene can restore the WT phenotype. We aimed to rescue a
daf-21. null mutant of C. elegans with Brugia pahangi
hsp90. Brugia and C. elegans. Hsp90 are 87% identical, but the Brugia gene failed to rescue the mutant.. Similarly the
hsp90(RNAi) phenotype in C. elegans is not rescued by Brugia.
hsp90. We have demonstrated that Brugia gene is transcribed and translated. in C. elegans and that the mutant can be rescued by re-introduction of the. endogenous gene. These results suggest that Brugia
hsp90 may be. significantly divergent from C. elegans
hsp90 or that Brugia
hsp90 may. require specific co-chaperones, not present in C. elegans, to function. optimally. As most interspecies mutant rescue experiments have come from. work carried out using H. contortous, a strongyloid nematode parasite of. sheep (with few other examples in the literature) we are now in the process. of creating an H. contortous
hsp90 transgene to ascertain whether rescue is. possible using
hsp90 from a more closely related species.