Investigation of Conserved Amino Acids in the EGL-15 5A Domain Required for Sex Myoblast Migration in C. elegans.

Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptors (FGFRs) play a role in diverse developmental pathways that mediate cell proliferation, cell migration, and cell survival. We use C. elegans as a model to better understand FGFR signaling specificity. C. elegans has a single FGFR, EGL-15 . EGL-15 contains an alternatively spliced exon 5 that results in two isoforms, EGL-15(5A) and EGL-15(5B), that differ in their extracellular domains. The EGL-15(5A) isoform is required for the chemoattraction of a pair of migrating sex myoblasts, whose correct positioning is required for egg laying. Deletion of the 5A domain results in an egg-laying defective (Egl) organism. We identified six highly conserved amino acids within the 5A domain and found that two amino acids, S145 and L148 are specifically required for sex myoblast migration in C. elegans .