Fig. 1.

Mitotic index is higher and pooled average DNA content is lower in larval versus adult stages (A) The number of proliferative zone nuclei in wild-type animals under continuous feeding conditions at 20 °C from hatching to 96 h. Error bars indicate 1 standard deviation at each time point. Germ cells begin proliferating at ~ 10 h; N (numbers of gonad arms) are as follows for subsequent time points: 32 hr, N = 12; 39 hr, N = 10; 43 h, N = 10; 47 h, N = 10; 51 h, N = 10; 58 h, N = 10; 66 h, N = 10; 72 h, N = 10; 97 h, N = 9. (B) Mitotic Index (MI) at two larval and two adult stages: L3 to L4 Molt, mid-L4, L4 to Adult Molt and Early Adult (12-hours post-mid-L4) stages. Number of gonad arms (N) and nuclei (n): L4 Molt, N = 31, n = 1591; mid-L4, N = 68, n = 9466; Adult Molt, N = 27, n = 4300; Early Adult, N = 44, n = 9340. (C) MI in larval and adult wild-type and fog-2(oz40) mutant hermaphrodites and males. For larval (mid-L4): wild-type hermaphrodite, N = 22, n = 2939; wild-type male N = 22, n = 2519; fog-2 hermaphrodite N = 21, n = 3003; fog-2 male N = 21, n = 253. Adult: wild-type hermaphrodite N = 21, n = 4014; wild-type male N = 21, n = 3000; fog-2 hermaphrodite N = 21, n = 4052; fog-2 male N = 23, n = 3066. (D) Pooled average DNA content in larval and adult stages (see Materials and methods and Results). For larval, N = 27, n = 1524. For adult: N = 26, n = 1997. Statistics: two-tailed Mann–Whitney U test, **0.01 > p > 0.001, ****0.0001 > p > 0.00001.