Figure 4. The RNAi inheritance machinery promotes germline immortality.
(a) Animals of indicated genotypes were out-crossed to wild-type 2–4x and brood sizes scored across generations at 25°C. n=5, +/− s.e.m. Note: for unknown reasons, nrde-1 and nrde-4 mutants are Mrt at both 20°C and 25°C, but hrde-1 and nrde-2 mutants are only Mrt ~25°C (n=4). (b) hrde-1(−) animals were out-crossed 3x and (+/+) or (−/−) siblings were isolated. Gonads were isolated and stained with DAPI (DNA), and immuno-fluorescence was used to detect sperm (green) and oocytes (red) (see Methods) in F1 and F5 generations. Scale bar = 100µm.