Figure 6

Expression of SAD-1 in sad-1 mutants during maintenance rescues defects in synaptic organization but not in neuronal polarity. (A) GFP::SAD-1 expression in C. elegans nervous system following heat shock (HS). No GFP was detected in animals reared at 22°C (top panels). However, upon HS, strong GFP fluorescence was detected in various neurons, including those along the body (bottom panels). GFP fluorescence was seen along processes on the dorsal nerve cord (DNC) as well as in cell bodies on the ventral nerve cord (VNC). (B) Polarity phenotype following post-L2 expression of SAD-1. Expression of SAD-1 during maintenance had no rescuing effects on the VD polarity phenotype. N.S., not significant, Wilcoxon rank-sum test. Error bars indicate standard deviations. (C) Synaptic organization phenotype following post-L2 expression of SAD-1. Diffuse juIs puncta were observed in sad-1 mutants before (Ci) and after (Ciii) HS. Expression of SAD-1 during maintenance rescued the juIs1 morphology phenotype (compare Cii and Civ). Quantification and density estimates of the punctum widths show no differences between sad-1 mutants (black) and HS construct-containing mutants (red) (Cv). However, upon HS, changes in the distribution of punctum widths can be observed (Cvi). Both density graphs show widths on the x-axis and density on the y-axis. Scale bar, 5 μm.