The genetic control of gastrulation is not well understood in C. elegans. We have isolated a temperature-sensitive mutation,
ct226ts, which results in failure to initiate gastrulation. The mutation, tentatively defining a gene which we propose to call
gad-1 (gastrulation defective), exhibits a strict maternal effect. At 16C, homozygous worms grow slightly slower than wild-type, are variably defective in egg-laying and gonad placement, and lay 24% dead eggs. At 25C, 100% of embryos laid by a homozygous hermaphrodite arrest with a clear gastrulation defect: the E blastomeres do not migrate into the embryo, and the embryo does not undergo gastrulation. Analysis of
ct226 mutant embryos with the 4D microscope has shown that the 2E4 division is premature and in the a-p rather than the d-v direction. The 4E8 division is also early and in an aberrant plane, and all 8 E cells remain on the ventral surface of the embryo. Gastrulation initiation appears to be completely blocked; there is no delayed migration of the gut precursors, nor do the mesoderm or germ-line precursors migrate into the interior of the embryo. Despite lack of morphogenesis, terminally arrested defective embryos have differentiated (though misplaced) muscle and hypodermal cells, as assayed with monoclonal antibodies MHCA (5.6.1) and MH27, respectively. Gut granules are also present, although clearly mislocalized in a cluster at the very posterior of the embryo. We have mapped
ct226 to the center of LG V, between
unc-83 and
dpy-11. This region is uncovered by the deficiency nDf18, but not by the deficiency sDf26. Embryos laid by
ct226/nDf18 hermaphrodites at 16C are inviable about 90% of the time, a substantially higher penetrance than for embryos from
ct226 homozygotes, suggesting that
ct226 is a hypomorphic allele. The Gad phenotypes of the inviable embryos from
ct226/nDf18 and
ct226/ct226 hermaphrodites are similar. None of the lethals in this immediate region, (
let-439,
let-473, and
let-337) fails to complement
ct226. Thanks in part to deficiency endpoint mapping of nDf18 by C. Malone and A. McGee in the Han lab, we have narrowed the location of
ct226 on the physical map to a small region between the left endpoint of nDf18 and
dpy-11. We are currently injecting appropriate cosmids in an attempt to rescue
ct226 homozygous mutant animals. Previously described mutations in at least seven other genes cause gastrulation defects; five of these show maternal effects (
emb-5,
emb-13,
emb-16,
emb-23, and
emb-31) and two do not [
zen-1 (Ferguson et. al WBG 13(5):66) and
end-1(Zhu et. al 1995 Worm Mtg. abstract 33)]. It is noteworthy that the non-maternal-effect mutants isolated to date have delayed E cell migration, but are able to complete gastrulation in most cases, while all the maternal-effect mutants arrest with mislocalized gut granules and only partial or no gastrulation (1, reviewed in 2).
emb-16(
g19ts) and
ct226 display the most severe phenotype, with very early Ea and Ep divisions and no E cell migration. Interestingly, these two characteristics are also shared by embryos in which embryonic transcription has been blocked by
ama-1 antisense RNA (Powell-Coffman, Knight and Wood WBG 14(1):70). We intend to combine our characterization of
ct226 with a search for embryonically transcribed genes required for gastrulation in the hopes of understanding the functional relationship between maternally and embryonically expressed genes in the control of gastrulation. 1. Denich, K.T.R., Schierenberg, E., Isnenghi, E., and Cassada, R. (1984). Rouxs Arch. Dev. Biol. 193, 164-179. 2. Bucher, E.A. and Seydoux, G. (1994). Seminars Dev. Biol. 5, 121-130.