[
Worm Breeder's Gazette,
1994]
CEG-I IS VERY SIMILAR TO DECAPENTAPLEGIC Mark Yandell and Bill Wood Department of MCD Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder We have cloned a TGF-beta homolog which we have provisionally called ceg-l for C. elegans growth factor-l. ceg-l is a member of the dpp/bmp2-4 subclassl of TGF-beta proteins (see PILEUP diagram) and is very similar to the Drosophila gene decapentaplegic (dpp) and the mouse gene GDF-5, the product of the brachypodism locus, alleles of which cause defects in limb morphologyv.2 We previously reported (WBG 12(5): 82) that ceg-l maps to chromosome V just to the left of the cluster. We have now mapped ceg-l to the genetic map by PCR from single dead embryos homozygous for either the deficiency sDf30 or the deficiency sDf20 and find that it maps to the cluster of lethals near dpy-l l which lie under both deficiencies. Developmental Northern blots show that ceg-l encodes a moderately rare transcript that is present in late embryos and L1 larvae. Sequencing of genomic and cDNA clones reveal that the ceg-l gene has eight introns and encodes a 1.7kb message which is trans-spliced to SL1. We are now preparing to inject heat-shock and LacZ contructs. We are also collaborating with Ronald Plasterk to obtain a Tc1 insertion in ceg-l. Kingsley, D. M., Genes and Development 8: 133-146, 1994. 2 Storm, E. E., Huynh, T. V., Copland, N. G., Jenkins, N. A., Kingsley, D. M., and Lee, S. Nature 368: 639-643. 1994.