# EMBRYONIC DEVELOPMENT IN C ELEGANS

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA · 1993 · $155,088

## Abstract

The mechanisms by which a single-celled embryo develops into a
complex multi-cellular organism remain intriguing problems in biology.
We have been using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans as an experimental
animal to investigate the components required for proper embryonic
development of a particular tissue, the intestine.  To identify genes
whose products are required for proper specification of the intestinal
lineage, we have isolated maternal effect lethal mutants whose defective
embryos fail to develop intestinal tissue.  These mutants fall into two
classes; par mutants, presumed to have defects in partitioning of
cytoplasmic components, and gut mutants, which have visible defects in
the gut lineage.  We intend to pursue this research by isolating
additional mutants in these genes, particularly the gut genes, so that we
have multiple alleles of each gene and have identified at least the
majority of genes of this class.  Mutants will be mapped genetically and
their early lineages will be analyzed microscopically.  They will be
characterized with antibody probes to show that they fail to make
antigens specific to intestinal cells but that they do produce an antigen
specific to other differentiated cell types.  Mutants will be obtained
following mutagenesis with gamma-irradiation or by "transposon tagging"
to obtain alleles that will be used to clone these genes.  Selected genes
will be cloned and sequenced, and their deduced amino acid sequence
compared to that of known proteins in computer databanks.  Antibodies
will be prepared to gut gene polypeptides and will be used as probes to
analyze the location of gut gene proteins in the developing embryo.
Portions of the gene essential for proper regulation and protein function
will be examined by in vitro mutagenesis and transformation into C
elegans.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 2198467
- **Project number:** 5R01HD022163-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
- **SAM.gov UEI:** KABJZBBJ4B54
- **Principal Investigator:** JOCELYN E SHAW
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1993
- **Award amount:** $155,088
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1991-08-01 → 1995-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/2198467

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 2198467, EMBRYONIC DEVELOPMENT IN C ELEGANS (5R01HD022163-03). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/2198467. Licensed CC0.

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