Genetic Analysis of the Cha-1-Unc-17 Gene Complex in Caenorhabditis

In C. elegans, the gene cha-1 is the structural gene for choline acetyltransferase, the enzyme which synthesizes acetylcholine. cha-1 is a complex gene which includes the previously described unc-17 locus; it has been hypothesized that a single protein is encoded which consists of several discrete structural domains. Mutations of the cha-1-unc-17 locus can be assigned to one of four classes on the basis of phenotype and complementation properties. A fine-structure map of this region has now been obtained by recombinational mapping. It is a large locus, spanning at least 0.035 map unit. On the map, the mutations lie in four contiguous, nonoverlapping regions, corresponding exactly to the different classes as defined by complementation and phenotype. Several new cha-1 mutations are described and mapped in the present study, including temperature-sensitive and lethal alleles.