Vulvaless for immunity

Model Organism: Worms Scientific Discussion
1

Hope you can help!

I’m working with a gene that I suspect has a role in immunity. Unfortunately it is egl so the worms bag-out before they die on a pathogen. I ridded them of the germline with cdc-25.1/lin-60 (rnai), which prevents the bag-of-worms, but now they die with bursting vulvas. The egl phenotype is caused by defects in sex myoblast migration…some of the final attachments to the hypodermis don’t occur, so the whole structure is destabilized, which I think might be causing the bursting.

I’m wondering if there’s a relatively innocuous mutant out there that would get rid of the vulva (vulvaless) so I wouldn’t have to worry about the bursting issue. I’ve done immunity assays with males, but want to stick to hermaphrodites if possible. I’m reading the vulva literature, but I thought there may be some people in the know on here.

Thanks.

2

lin-11 is what popped into my head. Good luck!

3

Try lin-31. It prevents bursting.

4

We use FUDR in our killing assays to prevent the development of the eggs. glp-1 RNAi may also help. Best of luck!

5

I use lin-60 to get rid of the eggs…the issue is the that the vulva is weak. Where do you buy your FUDR? Is it pretty expensive?

6

Sorry for the delayed response (I’m used to forums that automatically notify you if you’ve posted in the thread, but I’ve fixed that now). You can buy it from either Fisher or VWR. It’s not particularly expensive (couple hundred for more than you’ll likely ever need). We add it to our killing plates before pouring to a final concentration of 50ug/ml.