Isolation of mutations with dumpy-like phenotypes and of collagen genes in the nematode Pristionchus pacificus.

The nematode Pristionchus pacificus was developed as a satellite system in evolutionary developmental biology and forward and reverse genetic approaches allow a detailed comparison of various developmental processes between P. pacificus and Caenorhabditis elegans. To facilitate map-based cloning in P. pacificus, a genome map was generated including a genetic linkage map of approximately 300 molecular markers and a physical map of 10,000 BAC clones. Here, we describe the isolation and characterization of more than 40 morphological mutations that can be used as genetic markers. These mutations fall into 12 Dumpy genes and one Roller gene that represent morphological markers for all six P. pacificus chromosomes. Using an in silico approach, we identified approximately 150 hits of P. pacificus collagen genes in the available EST, BAC-end, and fosmid-end sequences. However, 1:1 orthologs could only be identified for fewer than 20 collagen genes.