Elsevier

Developmental Biology

Volume 81, Issue 2, 30 January 1981, Pages 208-219
Developmental Biology

Full paper
On the control of germ cell development in Caenorhabditis elegans

https://doi.org/10.1016/0012-1606(81)90284-0Get rights and content

Abstract

After hatching, the germ line progenitor cells in C. elegans begin to divide mitotically; later, some of the germ line cells enter meiosis and differentiate into gametes. In the adult, mitotic germ cells, or stem cells, are found at one end (the distal end) and meiotic cells occupy the rest of the elongate gonad. Removal of two somatic gonadal cells, the distal tip cells, by laser microsurgery has a dramatic effect on germ cell development. In either sex, this operation leads to the arrest of mitosis and the initiation of meiosis in germ cells. The function of the distal tip cell in the intact animal appears to be the inhibition of meiosis (or stimulation of mitosis) in nearby germ cells. During development, this permits growth and, in the adult, it maintains the germ line stem cell population. A change in the position of the distal tip cell in the gonad at an early point in development is correlated with a change in the axial polarity of the germ line tissue. This suggests that the localization of the distal tip cell's inhibitory activity at the distal end of the gonad establishes the axial polarity of the germ line tissue in the intact animal.

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    This investigation has been aided by a grant from the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research.

    1

    J.E.K. was a fellow of the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research.

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