Fig. 3. C. elegans Pax2/5/8 mutants have increased somatic cell apoptosis. (A-D) Representative comma-stage embryos from different genotypes. Cell corpses visible in the plane of focus are indicated with an arrowhead. (A) Wild type. (B) egl-38(n578). (C) pax-2(ok935). (D) pax-2(ok935) egl-38(n578). (E) Average number of visible cell corpses in comma to 1.5-fold stage embryos for wild type and Pax2/5/8 mutants. lin-2(e1309) is included as a control for eggs retained in an egg-laying defective mother. Error bars represent s.e.m. for at least 45 animals in each category. (F) unc-4::gfp-positive VC neurons in wild type and Pax2/5/8 L2 stage mutant animals. (G) Genetic epistasis experiments between C. elegans Pax2/5/8 genes and other genes that affect somatic cell apoptosis. Animals of different genotypes were treated with RNAi induced by bacterial feeding (see Materials and methods) and assessed as in E.