Variant identification and genotyping strategy for the smg-1(r861) allele in Caenorhabditis elegans

The <i>C. elegans</i> <i>smg-1</i> gene encodes a PI3K-related kinase responsible for initiating the process of nonsense-mediated decay (NMD). The <i>smg-1 ( r861 )</i> allele is a strong loss-of-function variant that disrupts NMD activity leading to the stabilization of transcripts containing premature stop codons (PTCs). This allele has been used extensively in studies of RNA surveillance, transcript stability, and transgene regulation. Despite its widespread use, the mutation in <i>smg-1 ( r861 )</i> has not been reported, and identification is often based solely on phenotype. Here, we identify the underlying mutation and present a restriction digestion-based genotyping strategy that enables quick confirmation of the <i>smg-1 ( r861 )</i> allele.