Molecules and Cells

Korean Society for Molecular and Cellular Biology (한국분자세포생물학회)
권호 표지

Identification and Characterization of a Putative Cyclic Nucleotide-gated Channel, CNG-1, in C. elegans

  • Cho, Suk-Woo (Department of Life Science, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST)) ;
  • Cho, Jeong-Hoon (Department of Life Science, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST)) ;
  • Song, Hyun-Ok (Department of Life Science, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST)) ;
  • Park, Chul-Seung (Department of Life Science, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST))
  • Received : 2004.10.18
  • Accepted : 2004.10.26
  • Published : 2005.02.28
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Abstract

Cyclic nucleotide-gated (CNG) channels encoded by the tax-4 and tax-2 genes are required for chemosensing and thermosensing in the nematode C. elegans. We identified a gene in the C. elegans genome, which we designated cng-1, that is highly homologous to tax-4. Partial CNG-1 protein tagged with green fluorescent protein was expressed in several sensory neurons of the amphid. We created a deletion mutant of cng-1, cng-1 (jh111), to investigate its in vivo function. The mutant worms had no detectable abnormalities in terms of their basic behavior or morphology. Whereas tax-4 and tax-2 mutants failed to respond to water-soluble or volatile chemical attractants, the cng-1 null mutant exhibited normal chemotaxis to such chemicals and a tax-4;cng-1 double mutant had a similar phenotype to tax-4 single mutants. Interestingly, cng-1 and tax-4 had a synergistic effect on brood size.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

Supported by : Korean Ministry of Science and Technology

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