Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Genetics logoLink to Genetics
. 1985 Oct;111(2):287–310. doi: 10.1093/genetics/111.2.287

Novel Nematode Amber Suppressors

Jonathan Hodgkin 1
PMCID: PMC1202644  PMID: 17246299

Abstract

Nine amber suppressor mutations were isolated in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans by reverting amber alleles of a sex-determining gene, tra-3. One suppressor maps to a known locus, sup-5 III , but the other eight map to three new loci, sup-21 X (five alleles), sup-22 IV (two alleles) and sup-23 IV (one allele). Amber alleles of tra-3 and of a dumpy gene, dpy-20, were used to measure the efficiency of suppression; the sup-21 and the sup-22 alleles were both shown to be heterogeneous and generally weaker suppressors than sup-5 alleles, which are homogeneous. The spectrum of mutations suppressed by a strong sup-21 allele, e1957, was investigated and compared to the spectra for the amber suppressors sup-5 III and sup-7 X, using amber alleles in 13 assorted genes. Some of the differences between these spectra may be due to limited tissue specificity in sup-21 expression.—Suppression of dpy-20 was used to show that the sex-linked suppressors sup-7 and sup-21 are not dosage compensated in male (XO) relative to hermaphrodite (XX).—Several uses of amber suppressors are critically discussed: for identifying null mutations, for varying levels of gene activity and for detecting maternal mRNA.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (2.7 MB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Birchler J. A., Owenby R. K., Jacobson K. B. Dosage compensation of serine-4 transfer RNA in Drosophila melanogaster. Genetics. 1982 Nov;102(3):525–537. doi: 10.1093/genetics/102.3.525. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bolten S. L., Powell-Abel P., Fischhoff D. A., Waterston R. H. The sup-7(st5) X gene of Caenorhabditis elegans encodes a tRNATrpUAG amber suppressor. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1984 Nov;81(21):6784–6788. doi: 10.1073/pnas.81.21.6784. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Brenner S. The genetics of Caenorhabditis elegans. Genetics. 1974 May;77(1):71–94. doi: 10.1093/genetics/77.1.71. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Britten R. J., Davidson E. H. Gene regulation for higher cells: a theory. Science. 1969 Jul 25;165(3891):349–357. doi: 10.1126/science.165.3891.349. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Broach J. R., Friedman L., Sherman F. Correspondence of yeast UAA suppressors to cloned tRNASerUCA genes. J Mol Biol. 1981 Aug 15;150(3):375–387. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(81)90553-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Dibb N. J., Brown D. M., Karn J., Moerman D. G., Bolten S. L., Waterston R. H. Sequence analysis of mutations that affect the synthesis, assembly and enzymatic activity of the unc-54 myosin heavy chain of Caenorhabditis elegans. J Mol Biol. 1985 Jun 25;183(4):543–551. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(85)90170-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Doniach T., Hodgkin J. A sex-determining gene, fem-1, required for both male and hermaphrodite development in Caenorhabditis elegans. Dev Biol. 1984 Nov;106(1):223–235. doi: 10.1016/0012-1606(84)90077-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Ferguson E. L., Horvitz H. R. Identification and characterization of 22 genes that affect the vulval cell lineages of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Genetics. 1985 May;110(1):17–72. doi: 10.1093/genetics/110.1.17. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Hodgkin J. A., Brenner S. Mutations causing transformation of sexual phenotype in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Genetics. 1977 Jun;86(2 Pt 1):275–287. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Hodgkin J. Two types of sex determination in a nematode. Nature. 1983 Jul 21;304(5923):267–268. doi: 10.1038/304267a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Horvitz H. R., Brenner S., Hodgkin J., Herman R. K. A uniform genetic nomenclature for the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Mol Gen Genet. 1979 Sep;175(2):129–133. doi: 10.1007/BF00425528. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Kimble J., Hodgkin J., Smith T., Smith J. Suppression of an amber mutation by microinjection of suppressor tRNA in C. elegans. Nature. 1982 Sep 30;299(5882):456–458. doi: 10.1038/299456a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Klass M., Wolf N., Hirsh D. Development of the male reproductive system and sexual transformation in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Dev Biol. 1976 Aug;52(1):1–18. doi: 10.1016/0012-1606(76)90002-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Lehman I. R., Chien J. R. Persistence of deoxyribonucleic acid polymerase I and its 5'--3' exonuclease activity in PolA mutants of Escherichia coli K12. J Biol Chem. 1973 Nov 25;248(22):7717–7723. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Moerman D. G., Baillie D. L. Formaldehyde mutagenesis in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Mutat Res. 1981 Feb;80(2):273–279. doi: 10.1016/0027-5107(81)90100-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Waterston R. H., Brenner S. A suppressor mutation in the nematode acting on specific alleles of many genes. Nature. 1978 Oct 26;275(5682):715–719. doi: 10.1038/275715a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Waterston R. H., Thomson J. N., Brenner S. Mutants with altered muscle structure of Caenorhabditis elegans. Dev Biol. 1980 Jun 15;77(2):271–302. doi: 10.1016/0012-1606(80)90475-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Wills N., Gesteland R. F., Karn J., Barnett L., Bolten S., Waterston R. H. The genes sup-7 X and sup-5 III of C. elegans suppress amber nonsense mutations via altered transfer RNA. Cell. 1983 Jun;33(2):575–583. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(83)90438-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Genetics are provided here courtesy of Oxford University Press

RESOURCES