High impact information on lev-1

• We show that three of the eleven genes of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans that mediate resistance to the nematocide levamisole and to other cholinergic agonists encode nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) subunits. unc-38 encodes an alpha subunit while lev-1 and unc-29 encode non-alpha subunits [1].
• Caenorhabditis elegans levamisole resistance genes lev-1, unc-29, and unc-38 encode functional nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunits [1].
• Two dominant mutations of lev-1 result in a single amino acid substitution or addition in or near transmembrane domain 2, a region important to ion channel conductance and desensitization [1].
• acr-16 encodes an essential subunit of the levamisole-resistant nicotinic receptor at the Caenorhabditis elegans neuromuscular junction [2].
• To determine which of the approximately 40 putative nicotinic receptor subunit genes in the C. elegans genome encodes the levamisole-resistant receptor, we utilized MAPCeL, a microarray profiling strategy [2].

Biological context of lev-1

• Restriction fragment length polymorphism analyses confirmed that, although polymorphism was detected, no selection of a specific allele of hcal has taken place during selection for levamisole resistance in various levamisole resistant populations [3].
• Kinetics of the binding of [3H]m-aminolevamisole to homogenates was measured in a drug-susceptible isolate and compared with a levamisole-resistant isolate [4].

References