Using a newly designed biphasic liquid-extraction assay, we have been examining choline acetyltransferase (CAT), the enzyme which synthesizes acetylcholine, in C. elegans. Studies have so far emphasized stabilizing the enzyme and identifying its multiple molecular forms in the wild-type, and studying 2 mutants with very low levels of CAT activity. One of these mutants,
tcf-1 was isolated in David Hirsh's lab as being resistant to trichlorfon. It is extremely uncoordinated and slow-growing, and has <2% of the wild-type CAT level. Another mutant, DH 103, isolated at Caltech, has<3% of the wild-type activity, yet is almost without apparent behavioral abnormality.