Parental effects and phenotypic characterization of mutations that affect early development in Caenorhabditis elegans

Genetic tests for parental effects were performed on 24 temperature-sensitive embryonic-lethal mutants of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. For 21 of these mutants, maternal expression of the wild-type allele is sufficient for embryonic survival, regardless of the embryo's genotype. For 11 of these 21 mutants, maternal expression of the wild-type allele is necessary for embryonic survival (strict maternals). For the remaining 10, either maternal or embryonic expression is sufficient for survival (partial maternals). One mutant shows a paternal effect; that is, a wild-type extragenic sperm function appears to rescue homozygous mutant embryos. Similar parental-effect tests were performed on 11 larval-lethal mutants. In 4 mutants, 1 of which blocks as late as the second larval stage after hatching, maternal contributions still can rescue mutant larvae. The remaining 3 embryonic lethals and 8 larval lethals show no parental effects; that is, zygotic expression of the wild-type allele is necessary and sufficient for embryonic survival. Temperatureshift experiments on embryonic-lethal embryos showed that all but 1 of the strict maternal mutants are temperature sensitive only before gastrulation. One of the partial maternal mutants is temperature sensitive prior to gastrulation, suggesting that some zygotic genes can function early in embryogenesis. At the nonpermissive temperature, 7 of the strict maternal mutants either show cleavage abnormalities in early divisions or stop cleavage at less than 100 cells, or both.