e369 : paralysed dumpy tends to curl; Egl; dorsal extensions of DD and VD neurons grow in aberrant directions fail to connect to dorsal nerve cord; amphid phasmid PDE axons abnormal; suppressed by sup-4. ES3 ME0. NA6 (e389 e432 etc.).
See also e432, e584, e1120, e1189, e1212
[C.elegansII] e369amb : paralysed dumpy tends to curl; Egl; dorsal extensions of DD and VD neurons grow in aberrant directions fail to connect to dorsal nerve cord; amphid, phasmid, PDE and other axons abnormal; multiple defects in axon elongation, fasciculation,etc. Abnormal axon ultrastructure: varicosities, cisternae, abnormal vesicles.ES3 ME0. OA>10: e389, e432, e584, e1212 etc. Cloned: 3.1 kb transcript, encodes predicted 856 aa protein with similarity to Ser/Thrkinases. unc-51: lacZ expressed in neurons. [Hedgecock et al. 1985; McIntire et al. 1992; Ogura et al. 1994; FK; FR]
unc-51 encodes a serine/threonine protein kinase orthologous to Saccharomyces cerevisiae autophagy protein Atg1p and the vertebrate ULK proteins; unc-51 is required for axon outgrowth along the anterior-posterior axis and sex myoblast migration; in regulating axon outgrowth, UNC-51 functions together with the VAB-8 kinesin-like protein and UNC-14, both of which physically interact with, and are phosphorylated by, UNC-51, and with the UNC-5 Netrin receptor, whose subcellular localization in neurons is regulated by UNC-51 and UNC-14; in addition, UNC-51 is required for normal dauer morphogenesis of daf-2 mutant animals; UNC-51 is expressed in all C. elegans neurons and in body wall and pharyngeal muscles; in neurons, an UNC-51::GFP fusion protein shows punctate cytoplasmic localization in axons and cell bodies and partial co-localization with UNC-14 and UNC-5.
Enables protein serine/threonine kinase activity. Involved in several processes, including determination of adult lifespan; nematode male tail tip morphogenesis; and regulation of axon extension. Located in axon and neuronal cell body. Expressed in body wall musculature; motor neurons; pharyngeal muscle cell; and touch receptor neurons. Is an ortholog of human ULK1 (unc-51 like autophagy activating kinase 1) and ULK2 (unc-51 like autophagy activating kinase 2).