Fig. 6. Overexpression of rnt-1 drives extra seam cell divisions. (A) Control wild-type worms subjected to heat shock (33°C, 1 hour) have the normal number of seam cells, visualised in adults with the scm:GFP reporter (white arrow). Scale bar: 70 µm. (B) Adult hermaphrodite carrying the hsp16-2::rnt-1 construct, previously subjected to heat shock (33°C, 1 hour) in L3. Several extra seam cells are visible with the scm::GFP reporter (white arrow). Anterior is towards the left in both panels. Scale bar: 70 µm. (C) Graph showing a quantitative analysis of adult seam cell number in heat shocked worms. Wild-type hermaphrodites subjected to heat shock (33°C, 1 hour) during L2 or L3 have the normal adult number of seam cells (data not shown). Transgenic worms carrying the hsp16-2::rnt-1 construct display the normal adult seam cell number following no heat shock (n=30), or heat shock during L1 (n=42) or L4 (n=25), but have extra seam cells following heat shock during L2 (n=31, P<0.01) or L3 (n=48, P<0.00001). Error bars represent the standard error of the mean. (D) him-5(e1490) male carrying the hsp16-2::rnt-1 construct. This animal had been previously subjected to heat shock during L2. An extra ray 3 is visible on one side of the animal, fused to the expected single ray 3 (white arrows). Scale bar: 10 µm