Genetic Analysis in C. elegans

Study Questions for

Brenner, S. 1974. The Genetics of Caenorhabditis elegans. Genetics 77: 71 - 94

Part I | Part II

Part I

About the INTRODUCTION

  1. Prior to his work with C. elegans, Sidney Brenner participated in groundbreaking work on how genes work at the molecular level (i.e., gene expression) using bacteria. Why did Brenner now choose to work with more complex organism as a model?
  2. What method has Brenner chosen to investigate the nervous system and animal development? Is this method by itself sufficient to completely understand a biological process? Explain.
  3. Does Brenner note any advantages of C. elegans that we didn't mention before?

About the EXPERIMENTS AND RESULTS

  1. How does hermaphrodite genetics differ from typical (non-hermaphrodite) genetic systems?
  2. Why does Brenner use EMS?
  3. Following mutagenesis, why does Brenner wait until the F2 generation to search for mutants?
  4. What mutant phenotypes did Brenner find in C. elegans?

Part II

About the EXPERIMENTS AND RESULTS (continued)

  1. Why are genetic complementation tests performed?
  2. When performing genetic complementation tests, why did Brenner use heterozygous (rather than homozygous) males? Why are only male progeny examined?
  3. Why did Brenner map new mutations to a linkage group?

About the DISCUSSION

  1. What unusual feature of the genetic map was noted by Brenner?
  2. Did Brenner identify all genes in his mutant hunt? A representative sample? If not, why not?

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Genetic Analysis in C. elegans

Bio 306 Genetics HyperText Lab Manual

Last Updated: Sept. 10, 1997

William R. Morgan wmorgan@acs.wooster.edu