Worm Breeder's Gazette 7(1): 83
These abstracts should not be cited in bibliographies. Material contained herein should be treated as personal communication and should be cited as such only with the consent of the author.
tra-3 mutants have a maternal defect that causes XX selfprogeny to develop as pseudomales. Two alleles have been identified. One is suppressible by sup-5 and sup-7, and one is not. Recently, sup-5 and sup-7 tRNAs have been shown to have amber suppressor activity ( Waterston and Gesteland, personal communication). We have therefore extracted sup-7 tRNA (a crude eluate including all tRNA plus 5S RNA) and attempted to rescue the maternal amber tra-3 mutant. Suppressor tRNA was microinjected into the distal arm of a tra-3 homozygous hermaphrodite (derived from a heterozygous mother). 60% of the parents injected ( 6 out of 10 animals) gave rise to hermaphrodite progeny, albeit only 3 hermaphrodites per parent. The average brood size of the injected animals was 100 and most progeny were pseudomales confirming the genotype of the mother. The hermaphrodite progeny were shown to be homozygous tra-3 animals because all were fertile and produced only pseudomales. Control experiments show that the background of hermaphrodites produced by tra-3 homozygotes is zero. Wild type tRNA was injected into 10 amber tra-3 animals, the average brood size was 100, but no hermaphrodite progeny were made. Sup-7 tRNA was injected into 10 non- amber tra-3 animals, the average brood size was about 100, but again no hermaphrodites were made. 4000 progeny have been screened from uninjected animals, and none was hermaphrodite.