Worm Breeder's Gazette 2(2): 5b

These abstracts should not be cited in bibliographies. Material contained herein should be treated as personal communication and should be cited as such only with the consent of the author.

Embryonic Cell Lineage on Living Eggs of C. elegans

E. Schierenberg, U. Deppe, T. Cole, C. Krieg, D. Schmitt, B. Yoder, G. von Ehrenstein

We study the embryonic cell lineage on cleaving eggs using Nomarski 
optics and recordings on video tape.  Eggs are observed outside the 
parent.  Care was taken that air bubbles are trapped under the 
microscope slide.  Under these conditions at an air temperature of 20 
C-22 C animals hatch 13-14 hours after fertilization.  We have 
determined the lineage of 182 cells: 128 AB-, 16 MST-, 16 C-, 16 E-, 4 
D- and 2 p4-descendents.  Cell divisions generally are synchronous 
within each lineage.  Each lineage has its autonomous rhythm of cell 
division.  This rhythm is maintained in spite of extensive cellular 
rearrangement.  The length of the cell cycle depends on the point of 
origin of the stem cells in the cytoplasm of the egg.  The most 
anterior AB-lineage has the shortest and the posterior P-lineage the 
longest cell cycle.
Early events of embryogenesis like blastula- and gastruIa formation 
will be described.