Ref ID : 866
William B. Wood, John S. Laufer, and Susan Strome; Developmental determinants in embryos of Caenorhabditis elegans. J.Nematology 14(2):267-273, 1982
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C. elegans is proving useful for the study of cell determination in early embroys. Breeding experiments with embryonic lethal mutants show that abnormal embryogenesis often results from defective gene function in the maternal parent, suggesting that much of the information for normal embryonic development is laid down during oogenesis. Analysis of a gut-specific differentiation marker in cleavage-arrested embryos has provided evidence that the potential for this differentiation behaves as a cell-autonomus internally segregating developmental determinant, which is present from the 2-cell stage onward and is partitioned into the gut precursor cell during early cleavage divisions. Visible prelocalized cytoplasmic granules that segregate with a particular cell lineage have been observed in the embryonic germline precursor cells by fluorescent antibody staining. Whether these granules play a role in germline determination.