Mutants that suppress the sterility of post-dauer AMPK mutants fall into five complementation groups.

Eight EMS-generated alleles were isolated from a genetic screen designed to identify genes involved in the AMPK regulation of germ cell integrity and germline quiescence during the dauer stage. All eight alleles were able to lay viable embryos that gave rise to a fertile generation. Through cross complementation analysis they were found to fall into five complementation groups, two of which had multiple independent alleles; Group 1—rr166, rr267 and Group 3—rr256, rr266, rr289. Based on our F1 and F2 cross-complementation analysis, all the alleles behave recessively, with the exception of rr249, which acts semi-dominantly. Wild type-like indicates the lack of any post-dauer somatic phenotypes associated with the loss of AMPK signalling, such as protruding vulva, burst vulva, multivulva, or premature death during the recovery period from the dauer stage. The values for % egg laying post-dauer animals, no. of germ cells in dauer larvae, and % wild type-like are presented as means. All strains contain the daf-2(e1370) allele. All EMS mutant strains are daf-2; aak(0). Each assay was repeated three times with 50 animals in each trial. n = 50.