Picture from Aprison, Erin Z. et al. (2022) MicroPubl Biol

Figure 1 Effects of several mutations affecting neuronal functions on the response of hermaphrodite germline to male pheromone ascr#10:(A) Representative image of a DAPI-stained distal germline of a 5-day old hermaphrodite. Distal to the left, proximal to the right. Nuclei to the left of the vertical dotted line were counted as the germline precursor cell (GPC) population. (B) Wild type N2 response to ascr#10 in the germline. In this, as in all subsequent panels, each dot denotes the number of GPCs in one gonad arm of one hermaphrodite; grey dots represent animals on control plates, orange dots represent animals exposed to ascr#10 starting at 48 hours after release from L1 arrest (after L4/adult transition, but before onset of egg laying) until being tested on Day 5 of adulthood. (C) The germline response of ceh-14(ot900) to ascr#10. (D) The germline response of hlh-4(tm604) to ascr#10. (E) The germline response to ascr#10 of mutants in two recently identified serotonin receptors, lgc-50(tm3712) and lgc-54(gk784282). (F) The germline response to ascr#10 of nlp-3(n4897) and nlp-3 overexpressing strain (vsIs276). N=25 for all conditions. Asterisks indicate statistical significance as determined by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test (** p<0.01, ***p<0.001).

Picture from Aprison EZ et al. (2022) MicroPubl Biol

Figure 1 Germline response to ascr#10 and ascr#3 in hermaphrodites carrying mutations that affect subsets of the nervous system:In panels A-F, each dot represents the number of GPCs in one gonad arm of one hermaphrodite; grey dots represent animals raised on control plates, orange dots represent animals exposed to ascr#10 starting at 48 hours after release from L1 arrest (after the L4/adult transition but before the onset of egg laying) until being tested on Day 5 of adulthood, red dots represent animals that were exposed to a 50:50 blend of ascr#10 + ascr#3. (A) The germline response to ascr#10 and a blend of ascr#10 + ascr#3 in wild type N2 hermaphrodites. This panel illustrates the logic of our paradigm - exposure to ascr#10 increases the number of germline precursor cells (GPCs), whereas exposure to a 50:50 blend of ascr#10 + ascr#3 has no effect. Inability to respond to ascr#3 would result in a similar increase in GPCs on ascr#10 as on the ascr#10 + ascr#3 blend. Data in this panel were previously published (Aprison and Ruvinsky, 2017). The germline response to ascaroside pheromones in (B) two strains that ablate ASG and BAG neurons, (C) ceh-14(ot900), (D) odr-1(n1936), (E) odr-1(n1936) that express wild type ODR-1 in ASJ, ASK, AWC neurons, (F) odr-1(n1936) that express wild type ODR-1 in AWB neurons. In panel A, N=20 (control), N=27 (ascr#10), and N=30 (ascr#10 + ascr#3). In panels B-F, N=25 for each condition. In panels A-F, horizontal black lines mark the mean. Asterisks indicate statistical significance as determined by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test (*p<0.05, ** p<0.01, and ***p<0.001). (G) A model of sensory neurons and pathways required for the germline response to ascaroside pheromones. ADL and ASI are required to increase the number of GPCs in response to ascr#10. ASJ, AWB, and AWC mediate the antagonizing effects of ascr#3. Modified from (Aprison and Ruvinsky, 2017).