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General Comment |
Aoki H, et al 2000 reported the characterization of Ce-atl-1, an ATM-like gene from
Caenorhabditis elegans.
An ATM-like gene was identified in the genome of Caenorhabditis elegans. The
putative product of the gene, termed Ce-atl-1 (C. elegans ATM-like 1) consists
of 2514 amino acid residues. The C-terminal sequence, which contains a PI-3
kinase-like domain, showed good homology with the products of the gene
MEC1/ESR1 from budding yeast, the rad3(+) gene of fission yeast and mammalian
A TR (ataxia-telangiectasia and rad3(+) related) genes. The results of
RNA-mediated interference indicated that the major phenotype associated with
repression of Ce-atl-1 was lethality (approximately 50-80%) during early
embryogenesis. Among the surviving progeny, males (XO animals) arose at a high
frequency (2-30%). In addition, 5% of oocyte chromosomes demonstrated
aneuploidy due to a defect in pre-meiotic chromosomal segregation. Gene
expression analyses indicated that Ce-atl-1 mRNA was expressed in all larval
stages and that its level increased about fivefold in the adult stage. The
adult expression level was decreased in the glp-4 mutant, which is defective
in germ line proliferation. Ce-atl-1 was strongly expressed in both the
mitotic and meiotic cells of adult gonads. In summary, Ce-atl-1 appears to be
important for early embryogenesis, and loss of its function results in a
defect in chromosome segregation, similar to what has been observed for
AT-related proteins.
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