C. elegans Genetic Nomenclature Basics

This information plus additional recommendations can also be found at Wormbase - UserGuide:Nomenclature

Example 1: Single mutant allele in a strain

The Loer lab designation is LC.

A complete list of lab designations ordered by strain designation found at the Caenorhabditis Genetics Center.

Also, Lab designations ordered by Principal Investigator / Lab Head last name

This is a complete description of all the mutations in the strain. In this example, the strain contains a single mutant allele. This particular strain could also be described by the allele number: e1490. This is a unique identifier - no other gene will have an "e1490" allele. Using the allele number alone, however, would not indicate the genetic background of the strain. The strain CB1490 has been outcrossed to remove background mutations found in the original isolate after mutagenesis (which would superficially appear to have the same genotype.) Therefore, the strain number is always the best and safest way to label your worms. The strain number is also a unique identifier that indicates the genotype and background (construction / isolation / outcrossing history) of the worm.

Some common lab allele designations include:
e - Cambridge ("england")
n - Horvitz lab
s - Baillie lab

The Loer lab allele designation is pa.

A complete list of lab designations ordered by allele designation. [Note that the alphabetical list begins with about 80 labs that lack an allele designation, so there's a bit of scrolling down to reach the first allele designations 'a, aa, aaa, aab...' ]

How to find out what that three-letter or four-letter abbreviation means? Search the abbreviation on WormBase, selecting 'Gene Class' on the pulldown menu.
Although gene names were originally restricted to three letters, this has been increased to four letters to accomodate the need for more gene names.

Example 2: Four mutant alleles in strain CF66, two on the same chromosome