Skip to main content
. 2024 Apr 2;12:RP88253. doi: 10.7554/eLife.88253

Figure 1. Natural variation in C. elegans egg retention.

(A) The number of eggs in utero in hermaphrodites (mid-L4 +48 hr) of 316 genetically distinct strains (isotypes) often strongly deviated from values observed in the laboratory strain N2 (~15 eggs in utero). We defined three classes of strains with distinct levels of egg retention: Class I weak:<10 eggs in utero (N=34), Class II canonical: 10–25 eggs in utero (N=230), Class III strong:>25 eggs in utero (N=14). N=18–150 individuals per strain were scored. (B) Geographic distribution of 316 C. elegans wild strains. Strains with different degrees of egg retention are labelled in different colours. For a detailed comparison of geographic distribution of the three phenotypic Classes, see Figure 1—figure supplement 1A. (C) Nomarski microscopy images of adult hermaphrodites (mid-L4 +48 hr) in wild strains with divergent egg retention. Eggs (coloured) contain embryos at different stages of development.

Figure 1—source data 1. Excel file containing source data for Figure 1.
elife-88253-fig1-data1.xlsx (315.9KB, xlsx)

Figure 1.

Figure 1—figure supplement 1. Natural variation of C. elegans egg number in utero.

Figure 1—figure supplement 1.

(A) Geographic distribution of Class I strains:<10 eggs in utero, low retention (N=34); Class II strains: 10–25 eggs in utero, canonical retention (N=230); Class III strains:>25 eggs in utero, high retention (N=14). (B) Frequency of strains with different egg retention phenotypes (Class I to III) in each substrate category. Strain information was obtained from the CaeNDR website: caendr.org. N=311 (for five strains there was no substrate information available).
Figure 1—figure supplement 1—source data 1. Excel file containing source data for Figure 1—figure supplement 1.
Figure 1—figure supplement 2. Egg number in utero in swept versus divergent C. elegans strains.

Figure 1—figure supplement 2.

Strains, scored for egg number in utero at L4 +48 hr (Figure 1A), were categorized as swept (N=275) or as divergent strains (N=41) following previous classifications (Gilbert et al., 2022). In brief, strains are categorized as swept if any of chromosomes I, IV, V, or X contained greater than or equal to 30% of the same haplotype; strains not among the swept strains are classified as divergent (Andersen et al., 2012; Lee et al., 2021; Gilbert et al., 2022). Thirteen out of the 14 Class III strains exhibited a swept haplotype.
Figure 1—figure supplement 2—source data 1. Excel file containing source data for Figure 1—figure supplement 2.