Our efforts to understand the role of each of the muscle genes in C. elegans myogenesis and muscle contraction have followed three different but interrelated approaches. Antibodies have been developed and used to define additional components of C. elegans body wall musculature. Studies of gene interactions have revealed epistatic relationships that help to define the function of some gene products. Transposition of the repetitive element Tc1 into the muscle gene
unc-22 has allowed us to clone this gene and begin the dissection of its function in the nematode.