Molecular lesions in the unc-10 Rim gene of C. elegans.

Molecular biology is a very common technique we use in the lab to dissect the role of proteins at the synapse. In this example, characterization of Rim lesions revealed that worms could live without this protein at the synapse. Rim consists of five different domains, a Zinc finger which binds RAB-3 and UNC-13, a glutamine and asparagine domain of unknown function, a PDZ domain which binds to the C. elegans CAST gene, and two C2 domains, one of which is involved in localizing Rim to the presynaptic density or active zone. Defining the structure of lesions in the Rim gene revealed point mutants and deletion such as md1117 which deletes the entire Rim coding region.. See Koushika et al. 2001 for details.