Figure 5

Reconstruction of C. elegans pharynx development. I. Assembly of the primordium. MSaa and MSpa lineages are in cyan. On the right side ABaraaap (and then its anterior daughter) is in red, ABarapaa in pink, ABarapap in yellow and ABaraapp in blue. On the left side, the symmetric sublineages are shown in the same colors but are marked by arrows, with ABalpaap (and then its anterior daughter) in red, ABalpaaa in pink, ABalpapp in yellow and ABaraapa in blue. White in frame a represents ABaraaaa, which gives rise to two L/R symmetric sublineages (in magenta in frame b and c) as well as a pair of cells one of which undergoes apoptosis and the other of which forms the third fold of symmetry for part of that sublineage (white in frame b and c). Grey represents a non-pharyngeal precursor, ABalpapa which interrupts the left side group at birth (frame a) but is excluded during subsequent development. For all frames in this figure, the non highlighted cells are shown as semi-transparent spheres. In frame a, at time 160, left-right symmetric precursor cells have been born but are not symmetric in their layout. Note the midline marked by the two rows of MS/cyan cells. MS cells have just started to enter the inside of the embryo. The blue cell that is part of the left side is born on the right side of the midline but will cross over to join the other left side cells. In frame b, time 207, the AB pharynx cells have moved to the midline to cover the MS cells. The blue cell of the left group has crossed the midline to assume a symmetrical position as its right counterpart. However, the pink cells of the left group are still disconnected from the yellow cells compared to the right side. The grey non-pharyngeal cells are now excluded from the primordium. In frame c, time 250, the left and right AB groups are fully assembled and symmetrical. II. The inflation of the primordium. To illustrate the topological mapping of the primordium to the mature pharynx, cells are colored as follows: white for buccal cavity, red for the corpus/anterior lobe, blue for the posterior lobe and purple for precursors whose descendents contribute to both lobes. The E/gut cells are shown in green for context. Frame a shows the primordium prior to inflation, where cells are arranged in two flat sheets that are left-right symmetric. In Frame b the sheets have begun to round slightly. In c they have rearranged to create a rounded shape, and the ventral MS portion of the pharynx moved anterior to the E cells. III. The emergence of threefold symmetry. Pharyngeal right side terminal cells (and their precursors) are in blue, those on the left are in red. Terminal cells and precursors are white if they, or their descendents, have no L/R counterpart. These cells make up the third component of the final threefold lumen symmetry. IV. Frame a shows the correspondence between pharynx cells whose lineages are annotated as left right symmetric with a line. A left view, angled slightly posterior-dorsal y, highlights the consistent alignment. Frame b, the position of cells at ~340 min pfc. Frames a and b use the same color scheme as in I with the addition of the E/gut cells in green. Frame c shows the final configuration of the pharynx colored as in II.