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Worm Breeder's Gazette,

1976]

Robert Wyman (Department of Biology, Yale University) reports that Theodore Bullock (University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California) has isolated a 4.1-meter long nematode from a 3.8-meter whale. The specimen is preserved, and Dr. Bullock is searching for a taxonomist interested in taking the beast. Want Ad: Does anyone know a way to cause a large population of males to release their sperm into the medium? CONTEST REMINDER: Don t forget that bottle of champagne from S. Ward and D. Hirsh promised to whoever scores the most progeny from a single hermaphrodite (see Newsletter, Vol. 1, # 2 for details). Deadline for submission of entries to either judge is February 23rd.

Korswagen HC et al. (1996) Worm Breeder's Gazette "Tc1 Sequence Tagged Sites, An Update"

Smits MT, Korswagen HC, Plasterk RHA, Durbin RM

[

Worm Breeder's Gazette,

1996]

In an effort to establish a high density Tc1 STS map as an extension of the mapping strategy developed by Williams et al. (1), we shotgun sequenced Tc1 insertion sites present in the high Tc1 copy number strains RW7000, CB4000 and KR1787 (2). To map these Tc1 insertion sites, flanking sequences were compared to the genomic sequence. In principle, all Tc1 insertion sites will fall in place when the complete genomic sequence of C. elegans becomes available. So far, we mapped 151 polymorphic Tc1 insertion sites in 40 Mbp of genomic sequence; a density of about one insertion in every 265 kb. Information on these mapped Tc1 insertion sites is available through ACeDB. These Tc1 insertions can be used as polymorphic markers, but can also be used for deletion mutatgenesis when a Tc1 insertion is located in or close to a gene of interest. (1) Williams, B. D. (1995) in Caenorhabditis elegans: Modern biological analysis of an organism, eds. Epstein, H. F. & Shakes, D. C. (Academic Press, San Diego), pp. 81-96. (2) Korswagen et al. (1995) Worm Breeder's Gazette 13(5): 90. Mapped polymorphic Tc1 insertion sites: (Indicated are approximate position on the genetic map, the cosmid the Tc1 is inserted in and the position of that Tc1 insertion in the cosmid sequence. Strain designations are A. RW7000, B. CB4000 and C. KR1787)