The Nesprin Family Member ANC-1 Regulates Synapse Formation and Axon Termination by Functioning in a Pathway with RPM-1 and β-Catenin
Figure 4
anc-1 functions cell autonomously to regulate axon termination in the PLM mechanosensory neurons.
(A) Upper panel diagrams the mechanosensory neurons of C. elegans (inspired by Worm Atlas). PLM neurons were visualized using muIs32 [Pmec7GFP]. The black box indicates the region of the animal that is visualized by epifluorescent microscopy and shown on the right. Shown for the rpm-1 mutant is the PLM axon termination phenotype that we refer to as a hook defect (arrowhead). Scale bar is 10 µm. (B) Quantitation of axon termination (hook) defects in PLM neurons for the indicated genotypes. (C) An ANC-1 dominant negative construct (ANC-1 DN) was expressed using a pan-neuronal promoter (Prgef-1) or a mechanosensory neuron specific promoter (Pmec-3) with the indicated genotypes. A full length ANC-1 rescue construct (Pmec-7::ANC-1) was expressed in anc-1; fsn-1 double mutants. The data shown is an average of 5 or more transgenic lines for each genotype. Analysis was done on young adults grown at 23°C. Significance was determined using an unpaired Student's t test; error bars represent the standard error of the mean. *P<0.05, **P<0.01, ***P<0.001, ns = not significant.