Theresa Moser et al. (2004) East Coast Worm Meeting "Analysis of an UNC-13 protein expressed from an internal promoter"

Brooke Swalm, Monique Spencer, Theresa Moser, Rebecca Kohn, Lydia Sanchez, Bethany Stitt, Kristin Servent

[East Coast Worm Meeting, 2004]

Several protein products are expressed from unc-13 . The predominant product localizes to synapses (Kohn, 2000) and is important for vesicle priming (Richmond, 2001). We are interested in understanding the roles of the other proteins expressed from the gene and are examining their expression patterns. Previous cosmid rescue experiments indicated that an internal promoter is used for expression of an UNC-13 protein product. We constructed a fusion of the putative promoter with the GFP gene and injected it into worms. We also developed antibodies to recognize the protein product expressed from the internal promoter. These antibodies bind UNC-13 proteins on Western transfers. GFP expression and immunohistochemical studies will determine the localization patterns of the less abundant form of UNC-13.