Figure 1

Regulation of vit-2 mRNA and yolk protein levels in young adult wildtype C . elegans hermaphrodites. A) Quantitation of vit-2 mRNA in wildtype adult hermaphrodites, relative to act-1, normalized to day 1 levels. Levels of vit-2 mRNA decline progressively during the first 6 days of adulthood in wildtype hermaphrodites. mRNA levels were measured in independent trials using pools of 30 hermaphrodites at indicated adult ages. Results were normalized to mRNA levels in day 1 adult wildtype hermaphrodites, relative to act-1. Results were statistically analyzed and are presented as quantile plots. Black dots indicate results from individual trials. The median value is indicated by a horizontal line within the quantile box plot. The 25th and 75th quantiles are represented by the upper and lower ends of the boxplot, respectively. Whisker lines extending from the box designate the outer-most data point that falls within 1.5 × the range between the 25th and 75th percentiles. Summary statistics are presented in Table 1. B) Absolute values of act-1 mRNA as determined using the cycle threshold (Ct). Levels act-1 mRNA remained constant between adult days 1-6 in wildtype hermaphrodites (p = 0.49, ANOVA). Data are 5 independent measurements at each age. C) Analysis of yolk protein (YP) abundance by SDS-PAGE of total lysates from wildtype hermaphrodites stained with Coomassie blue. Arrows indicate YP170, YP115 and YP88, and myosin and actin which provided standards for YP quantitation. YP levels relative to myosin were elevated in day 4 hermaphrodites compared to day 1, although actin levels remained constant. Gel results are quantified in D). Error bars, standard deviation; ** p < 0.01, T-test.