BIOL 233 Study Guide - Radiography, Plant Cell, Sulfonate
Document Summary
Objectives: to learn how to perform mutant screens and characterize newly-found mutants. Introduction: whenever a biologist is interested in studying some particular process and he/she wants to find the underlying genes involved in the process, a mutant screen is a powerful way to find the genes. Scientists have devised all different types of mutant screens, the simplest are ones in which they look for some easily observable phenotype. When the first geneticist working with caenorhabitus elegans wanted to find mutations in genes involved in the development of the worm nervous system he first thought about what type of mutants he might be likely to see. For example if nerves do not properly innervate muscles then the movement of worms could be affected. With this in mind he looked for mutants that did not move normally: --what you know as the unc phenotype (uncoordinated).