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Comments on Catarina Marck et al. (2006) European Worm Meeting "Misexpression of Acetylcholinesterases in the C. elegans pha-2 Mutant Causes Post-Embryonic Pharyngeal Isthmus Deformation" (0)
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Catarina Marck, Claes Axang, Mattias Goksar, & Marc Pilon (2006). Misexpression of Acetylcholinesterases in the C. elegans pha-2 Mutant Causes Post-Embryonic Pharyngeal Isthmus Deformation presented in European Worm Meeting. Unpublished information; cite only with author permission.
Catarina Mrck1, Claes Axng2, Mattias Goksr3 and Marc Pilon2. pha-2 is the C. elegans homolog of the vertebrate homeobox gene Hex. Embryonic expression of pha-2 is mostly pharyngeal and the only described mutant allele of pha-2 results in a severe pharyngeal defect in which certain muscle cells (pm5 cells) and neurons are grossly deformed. Here we report a detailed characterization of the pha-2 gene and phenotype using cell-type specific reporters, optical manipulation of the nuclei in pharyngeal muscle cells using optical tweezers, electron microscopy, staining of the actin cytoskeleton as well as phenotypic rescue and ectopic expression experiments. The main findings of the present study are: (i) The pha-2 (ad472) mutation specifically impairs the pharyngeal expression of pha-2; (ii) In the pha-2 mutant, the cytoskeleton of the pm5 cells is measurably weaker and severely disrupted by large tubular structures and organelles; (iii) The pm5 cells of the pha-2 mutant fail to express the acetylcholinesterase genes ace-1 and ace-2; (iv) Ectopic expression of pha-2 can induce ectopic expression of ace-1 and ace-2; and (v) Inhibition of acetylcholinesterase in a mutant with mislocalized pm5 cell nuclei can reproduce the deformed isthmus phenotype of the pha-2 mutant.