We are continuing to use anesthetic hypersensitivity of certain mutants of C. elegans to understand the mechanism of action of inhalation anesthetics. Both
unc-79 and
unc-80, which have nearly identical phenotypes, are much more sensitive than N2 to the very lipid soluble volatile anesthetics. Using this hypersensitivity, we have mapped
unc-80 to LGV, approximately 10 map units to the right of
dpy-21. The double mutant
unc-79;
unc-80 is only slightly more sensitive to these agents than either mutation alone. An X-linked suppressor of this hypersensitivity, ec-27, has been identified as an allele of
unc-9. Unlike
e101, the reference allele of
unc-9,
ec27/0 males can mate. The double mutants
unc-79;
e101 and
unc-80;
e101 are identical in anesthetic response to
unc-79;
ec27 and
unc-80;
ec27 for all agents tested to date. We have constructed a mutant strain sDp3/unc-79
dpy-17 unc-79 unc-36 rovided by David Baillie). The duplication sDp3 contains a wild-type copy of each mutant marker, and is lost at a low frequency from mitotic cells. Using this strain we hope to isolate individual animals that are somatic mosaics for the gene unc- 79 and analyze their anesthetic sensitivity.