Description |
ace-3 encodes one of four C. elegans acetylcholinesterases (AChE); ACE-3 represents ~5% of the total AChE activity in C. elegans and in vitro, hydrolyzes acetylthio-, butyrylthio-, and propionylthiocholine substrates with equal efficiency; although loss-of-function mutations in ace-3 result in no obvious defects, animals doubly mutant with ace-1 or ace-2 have slight defects in backward locomotion and animals triply mutant for ace-1, -2, and -3 arrest as unhatched, yet fully developed, embryos; ace-3 is the downstream gene in an operon with a fourth AChE-encoding gene, ace-4, and transcriptional reporter fusions with ace-4 upstream sequences direct expression in pharyngeal muscles pm3, 4, 5, and 7, the two CAN (canal associated neuron) cells, midbody dorsal body wall muscles in larvae, and several neurons in the head and anal ganglion |