Figure 2. Chronic temperature stress exposes heterogeneous physiological response of the reproductive system in C. elegans.

The brood sizes for animals reproducing at 20 (A) and 25°C (B) are normally distributed. However, at higher temperatures, 28 (C) and 29°C (D), the distribution of brood sizes reflects a heterogeneous population. At these temperatures, the brood size distributions (solid lines) can no longer be approximated as single normal distributions. Instead, each is better explained as a mixture of two distinct components (dashed lines), the relative weight of which is dependent on temperature. Red boxes in the left panels highlight the data shown in the right panels.