Table 2.
Mutants retrieved from genetic screens
| Gene name | Molecular identity | Manual screen | Sorter screen | Allele names | Dom/Rec | Pleiotropies |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| dopy-2 | unknown | 0 alleles | 3 alleles | ot340, ot345 ot406 | R | - |
| dopy-3 | unknown | 0 alleles | 1 allele | ot337 | D | - |
| dopy-4 | unknown | 1 allele * | 0 alleles | ot260 | R | - |
| dopy-5 | unknown | 4 alleles ** | 0 alleles | ot283, ot284, ot296, ot298 | R | sterile |
| dopy-6 | unknown | 1 allele * | 0 alleles | ot263 | R | - |
| dopy-7 | unknown | 0 alleles | 2 alleles | ot399, ot347 | R | sick |
| lin-32 | bHLH | 2 alleles | 4 alleles | ot259, ot297, ot341, ot343, ot338, ot366 | R | - |
| ham-1 | no homologies | 2 alleles | 6 alleles | ot253, ot257, ot342, ot361, ot367, ot339, ot371, ot364 | R | - |
| vab-3 | paired + homeodomain | 0 alleles | 1 allele | ot346 | R | notched head |
| Total allele number | 10 | 17 | ||||
| Genomes screened | 11,000 | 80,000 | ||||
| Allele frequency per genomes screen | 1/1,100 | 1/4,700 | ||||
| Time investment | 100 days § | 25 days § | ||||
| Allele frequency per time | 1 allele / 10 days | 1 allele / 1.5 days | ||||
Dom/Rec indicates “dominant/recessive”.
These days are differentially spent. 100 days dissecting scope work mean full time work at the microscope while 25 days of worm sorting involves mainly machine running and casual observation of functioning of sorter.
As these two mutants only affect gfp expression in the 2 PDE neurons, it is possible that these two mutants were only retrieved by the manual screen because gfp expression in the PDEs is dimmer than in the other dopaminergic neurons and a loss of gfp expression only in these neurons is the most challenging phenotype to detect. In fact, one of the two missing PDE mutants was isolated in the manual screen only for its concurrent `extra PDEs' phenotype (see quantification of phenotypic data in Fig. 2).
This sterile mutant was not isolated by the worm sorter screen because we did not pursue sorted mutants that could not easily be maintained as homozygotes. In contrast to semi-clonal manual screens, in which it is easy to maintain a sterile mutant strain by identifying and maintaining heterozygous adult animals from the parental plate, plates that were analyzed by the worm sorter contained significantly more complex population of mutants, which makes the re-isolation of the parents labor intensive, though still possible in principle.
A more comprehensive version of this table is presented in Supplementary Table 6.