Journal: Nature Communications

Article Title: Hox genes regulate asexual reproductive behavior and tissue segmentation in adult animals

doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-26986-2

Figure Lengend Snippet: a Diagram of webcam time-lapse imaging and timeline visualization depicting successful (upward displacement) and unsuccessful (downward displacement) fission attempts. b Representative activity timelines of fission behavior from live imaging of control, post2b , and hox3a + hox3b RNAi animals. c – e Plots of ( c ) total number of fission attempts (Control vs. post2b and hox3a + hox3b p -values = 0.005 and <0.0001, respectively), ( d ) duration of each attempt (Control vs. hox3a + hox3b , p -value < 0.0001), and ( e ) percentage of successful attempts for RNAi-treated animals (Control vs. hox3a + hox3b p -value = 0.194). n = 8, 6, and 6 animals for Control, post2b , and hox3a + hox3b RNAi samples, two independent repeats. Source data are provided as a Source Data file. f – h Representative images (5 min per frame, A = anterior, P = pre-fission posterior, and P’ = post-fission posterior) of ( f ) successful and ( g , h ) unsuccessful fission attempts divided into Phase 1 (Contortion) and Phase 2 (Stretch) for ( f , g ) control and ( h ) hox3a + hox3b RNAi-treated animals (experiment independently repeated once). i , j Plots of the duration of ( i ) Phase and ( j ) Phase 2 within each fission attempt for RNAi-treated animals ( n = 18, 50, and 476 fission events for Ctl Successful, Ctl Unsuccessful, and hox3a + hox3b Unsuccessful, respectively; Ctl Successful vs. Ctl Unsuccessful p -value = 0.0005; Ctl Unsuccessful vs. hox3a + hox3b Unsuccessful p -value < 0.0001). Source data are provided as a Source Data file. k , l Representative images of the ( k ) entire body or the ( l ) pre-pharyngeal region of hox3a + hox3b RNAi-treated animal stalled in Phase 1 ( n = 10/10 animals, arrows indicate tissues undergoing peristaltic contractions, two independent repeats). Animals were given 17 bacterial RNAi feedings. Scale, 1 mm. Box and whisker plot depicts individual data points, median (center), 25th/75th percentile (bounds of box), and minima/maxima (whiskers). p -values calculated by Welch’s two-tailed t -test. Scale, 1 mm.

Article Snippet: Data were visualized with timelines plotted using Graphpad Prism version 9.2.0.

Techniques: Imaging, Activity Assay, Control, Whisker Assay, Two Tailed Test