The cisd gene family regulates physiological germline apoptosis through ced-13 and the canonical cell death pathway in Caenorhabditis elegans

The cisd-1(tm4993) animals displays germline abnormalities. a Left: schematic diagram of the C. elegans adult hermaphrodite gonad; shown is one of two gonads to note the meiotic regions, cell death zone, and location of the distal tip cell (DTC) [20, 61]. Right: representative images of the gonad arm for the N2 wild-type or the cisd-1(tm4993) 1-day old adult hermaphrodite. The oocytes are outlined and the number of oocytes present in the gonad are represented. b Left: Schematic diagram of the C. elegans L4 larvae gonad; shown is one of two gonads to note the gonad structure and location of the DTC. Right: representative images of the gonad arm for the N2 wild-type or the cisd-1(tm4993) L4 larvae hermaphrodite. The cisd-1(tm4993) animal displays a DTC migration (Mig) defect. The dashed line indicates the distal tip cell migration pattern and black half-moon outlines the DTC. c Left: schematic diagram of a 1-day old adult hermaphrodite showing the migration pattern of the DTC (black arrows). Right: representative images of the gonad arm for the N2 wild-type or the cisd-1(tm4993) 1-day old adult hermaphrodite. The cisd-1(tm4993) animal displays a DTC migration (Mig) defect. The dashed line indicates distal tip cell migration pattern and black half-moon outlines the DTC. For a, b and c, the scale bar？=？20？μm. d There is a significant decrease in the number of maturing oocytes in the gonad of cisd-1(tm4993) one-day old adult hermaphrodite relative to the N2 wild-type (* indicates P？<？0.005, two-tailed unpaired t-test). Three independent experiments for a total of 30 animals were analyzed. e There is a significant increase in the proportion of animals that displayed a Mig phenotype in the cisd-1(tm4993) 1-day old adult hermaphrodite gonad relative to N2 wild-type (* indicates P？<？0.0005, two-tailed unpaired t-test). f The average number of progeny produced in the 1- to 5-day old cisd-1(tm4993) adult relative to the N2 wild-type of the same developmental stage. There is a significant decrease in the number of progeny produced by the 1- to 3-day old cisd-1(tm4993) adult relative to N2 wild-type adults (bar indicates P？<？0.05, two-way ANOVA, Sidak’s multiple comparisons test). For d, e and f, error bar equals standard deviation