Identification of the structural gene for a myosin heavy-chain in Caenorhabditis elegans

Mutants in the unc -54 gene of Caenorhabditis elegans have been characterized by cyanylation and sodium dodecyl sulphate/polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the total myosin present in each mutant. In the recessive mutants lacking a major fraction of the total myosin, the high molecular weight doublet of 15 × 10 4 and 14 × 10 4 which dominates the cyanylation pattern of the total wild-type myosin is absent. In the mutant E675, which possesses a novel heavy-chain with a molecular weight of 2 × 10 5 , each component of the cyanylation doublet is reduced by 10 4 daltons, indicating that the doublet is derived from partial cleavage of a single polypeptide chain. This suggests that unc -54 is the structural gene for a myosin heavy-chain present in a major fraction of the total nematode myosin.