Teneurins are large transmembrane proteins that are highly expressed in the developing and adult nervous system and at sites of pattern formation and cell migration. They were proposed to act as receptors that signal directly to the nucleus following proteolytic release of the intracellular domain. The receptors are thought to interact in a homophilic manner but whether other ligands exist still needs to be determined. The single C.elegans teneurin orthologue, named
ten-1, is expressed in a subset of neurons as well as in the developing somatic gonad, pharynx, hypodermis, body wall and vulva muscles. The loss-of-function
ten-1(
ok641) mutant worms often burst at the vulvae, have protruding vulvae and are sterile due to ectopic germline forming in the center of the gonad. The
ten-1(
ok641) mutants show also defects in neuronal and distal tip cell migration. It is known that C. elegans laminin
epi-1 and dystroglycan
dgn-1 are important for the maintenance of the gonadal basement membrane since
epi-1(
rh92) and
dgn-1(
cg121) mutants are sterile due to disruption of the early gonads. We found that
ten-1(
ok641) mutant gonads also break early in development and
ten-1 shows a strong genetic interaction with
epi-1 and
dgn-1. Most of the double mutant worms arrest as embryos or L1 larvae. This suggests that
ten-1 acts with or in parallel to these two genes encoding basement membrane components. We analyzed the
ten-1(
ok641) mutant basement membranes using a LAM-1::GFP marker and did not find any major defects in their general organization. However, we observe a gap localized on the dorsal side of L2 gonads. We propose that TEN-1 might be a novel receptor or regulator of the basement membrane proteins. It may act together with laminin EPI-1 and dystroglycan DGN-1 not only in the maintenance of the gonadal basement membrane but also throughout worm development.