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Published November 1996 | Published
Journal Article Open

Morphogenesis of the C. elegans hermaphrodite uterus

Abstract

We have undertaken electron micrographic reconstruction of the Caenorhabditis elegans hermaphrodite uterus and determined the correspondence between cells defined by their lineage history and differentiated cell types. In this organ, many cells do not move during morphogenesis and the cell lineage may function to put cells where they are needed. Differentiated uterine cell types include the toroidal ut cells that make structural epithelium, and specialized utse and uv cells that make the connection between the uterus and the vulva. A cell fate decision in which the anchor cell (AC) induces adjacent ventral uterine intermediate precursor cells to adopt the pi fate, rather than the ground state rho, has profound consequences for terminal differentiation: all pi progeny are directly involved in making the uterine-vulval connection whereas all rho progeny contribute to ut toroids or the uterine-spermathecal valve. In addition to specifying certain uterine cell fates, the AC also induces the vulva. Its multiple inductions thereby function to coordinate the connection of an internal to an external epithelium. The AC induces the pi cells and ultimately fuses with a subset of their progeny. This is an example of reciprocal cell-cell interaction that can be studied at single cell resolution. The AC is thus a transitory cell type that plays a pivotal role in organizing the morphogenesis of the uterine-vulval connection.

Additional Information

Copyright © 1996 by Company of Biologists. (Accepted 17 July 1996) This work was supported by the MRC and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, with which P.W.S. is an investigator and A.P.N. is an associate. We thank E. Southgate and D. Kershaw for undertaking the electron microscopy, R.H. Waterston for his generous gift of the MH27 antibody, S. Crittendon for help with MH27 antibody staining, and T. Clandinin, M.-A. Felix, A. Gonzalez-Serricchio, and B. Palmer for their comments on the manuscript.

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August 22, 2023
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