mutant C. elegans with reduced gut fluorescence

[Wayne Forrester]

   I recently identified a mutation, gm125, on the X chromosome that
greatly reduces gut autofluorescence. I find that visualizing GFP
reporters expressed in cells in the middle of the animal is easier in a
gm125 background. gm125 is unlikely to be a known flu mutant; gm125 looks
very different from flu-2 or flu-4, the only flu¹s on X. gm125 appears to
reduce the number of green or yellow spots (color depends on filters used)
from 100¹s or 1000¹s to 10 or 20. (If I remember correctly from a previous
post, those spots appear to be some sort of storage vesicle.) Other
sources of autofluorescence, which mainly appear in older animals, are
still present. gm125 animals are reasonably healthy as homozygotes, and
males mate well. If you are interested in this mutant, send e-mail to
forrestr at mendel.berkeley.edu.
Wayne Forrester (Garriga lab)