Mutants in the
unc-119 gene are defective in locomotion, feeding behavior and chemosensation (Maduro M, Pilgrim D,1995). The
unc-119 gene expresses in many neurons including the cell bodies and processes of several motor neurons in the nerve cord, pharyngeal region, and in the tail lumbar ganglia, pre-anal ganglion and dorso-rectal ganglion, and the male sensory neurons; suggesting that the
unc-119 mutants are defective in most of the nervous system. The expression of
unc-119::lacZ and GFP shows that the
unc-119 gene is expressed shortly before the comma stage in embryogenesis and continues during late embryonic and post-embryonic development (Maduro M, Pilgrim D,1995). In accompanying abstracts in this issue of WBG, we have shown that the
dpy-20 may encode a novel transcription factor that affects transcription of various genes in the ventral cord motor neurons (Ali et al., Shibata et al., Ali et al. see abstracts in this WBG issue ) We have found that in the
dpy-20(
e2017) mutant background the expression of the
unc-119::lacZ is reduced significantly in the ventral nerve cord motor neurons, with little or no affect on the staining pattern of the sensory neurons in the head or tail of the animals. In addition we have observed ectopic expression of the
unc-119 reporter gene in the vulval region. These results suggest that the
dpy-20 is affecting expression of the
unc-119 reporter gene in a select class of motor neurons as there is no effect on the expression of
unc-119 in the touch neurons and in the embryos. To test the effect of
unc-119 mutation on the expression of
dpy-20 gene expression, we have done an experiment in reverse, i.e. studied expression of the
dpy-20::lacZ in
unc-119(
e2498) mutant background and found that there is a small effect of
unc-119 mutant background on the expression of
dpy-20. In the
unc-119 mutant background, about 20% animals show reduced staining in the ventral cord motor neurons and also in the hypodermal cells.