Figure 4. Confocal images of the VPCs and their descendants from L3 wild-type hermaphrodites. At the L3 stage, animals were fixed and stained with anti-GFP antibody to visualize LIN-12::GFP and with MH27, to visualize tight junctions which outline the VPCs and counterstained with DAPI, to visualize all nuclei (data not shown). (A,C,E,G,I,K) Anti-GFP staining pattern. (B,D,F,H,J,L) MH27 staining pattern. All images are ventral views except E and F which are lateral views; in all images anterior is to the left. (A,B) Pn.p stage, early L3. White arrows point to P6.p. (C,D) Pn.p stage, mid L3. White arrows point to P6.p. (E,F) Lateral view, Pn.p stage, mid L3. White arrows point to P6.p. In E, g is above the gonadal staining. (G,H) Pn.p stage, mid L3. 3xzoom. Left arrow points to P6.p, right arrow points to P7.p. (I,J): Pn.px stage. All Pn.ps have divided once; P3.p has already joined the hypodermal syncytium
hyp7 so it is no longer outlined with the MH27 antibody. Outlined arrows point to progeny of P5.p and P7.p. (K,L): Pn.pxx stage.P5.p-P7.p have divided twice. P3.p, P4.p and P8.p descendants have joined the hypodermal syncytium
hyp7 and are no longer outlined by the MH27 antibody. Arrowheads point to the progeny of P5.p and P7.p.