Figure 1

The effect of spr-2 and sel-12 mutations on sel-12 transcript levels. A) mRNA levels determined by qRT-PCR relative to the average of control transcripts (ama-1, nhx-4 and eft-2). sel-12 transcripts were detected from synchronized L1s. Three different amplicons, sel-12-3, sel-12-5 and sel-12-6, (see Table 1 for primer names and sequences) were tested. The error bars represent the standard deviation between the normalized control primers. sel-12 transcript levels are greatly reduced by the ar171 mutation, while both spr-2 mutations reproducibly increase ar171 transcript levels. B) A model of the SEL-12 presenilin protein where the position of the point mutations are depicted. Stop mutations are shown by open squares and amino acid substitutions by black squares (Modified from [6]). C) The gene structure of sel-12(F35H12.3). Exons are denoted by blue rectangles joined by a jointed line. The 3' UTR of sel-12 is noted in lighter blue. The position of alleles PTC mutations are indicated by yellow vertical bars, the ar131 missense mutation is indicated with a green vertical bar and the extent of the ok2078 and lg1401 deletions is indicated with black horizontal bars. The position of the primer pairs used in qRT-PCR studies presented in this paper are indicated with small arrows above the gene structure. D) The relative mRNA levels of sel-12 detected by qRT-PCR with the primer pair for amplicon sel-12-6 (Table 1) are plotted on a logarithmic scale for N2, and strains with five different sel-12 mutations.