The two specialized C. elegans distal tip cells (DTCs) provide an in vivo model system for the study of developmentally regulated cell migration. We identified cacn-1/cactin, a well-conserved, novel regulator of cell migration in a genome-wide RNAi screen for regulators of DTC migration. RNAi depletion experiments and analysis of the hypomorphic allele cacn-1(tm3126) indicate that CACN-1 is required during DTC migration for proper pathfinding and for cessation of DTC migration at the end of larval morphogenesis. Strong expression of CACN-1 in the DTCs, and data from cell-specific RNAi depletion experiments, suggest that CACN-1 is required cell-autonomously to control DTC migration. Importantly, genetic interaction data with Rac GTPase activators and effectors suggest that CACN-1 acts specifically to inhibit the mig-2/Rac pathway, and in parallel to ced-10/Rac, to control DTC pathfinding.
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