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. 2018 Mar 22;7:e32785. doi: 10.7554/eLife.32785

Figure 1. Transcription factors from six different TF families are required for HSN terminal differentiation.

(A) Phylogenetically conserved serotonin biosynthetic pathway. C. elegans protein names appear in black case, mammalian in grey. AADC: aromatic L-amino acid decarboxylase; GCH: GTP cyclohydrolase; TPH: tryptophan hydroxylase; Trp: tryptophan; VMAT: vesicular monoamine transporter; 5HTP: 5-hydroxytryptophan; 5HT: serotonin. (B) C. elegans hermaphrodite serotonergic system is composed of three subclasses of bilateral neurons (NSM, ADF and HSN, L: left, R: right). See Figure 1—figure supplement 1 for expression profiles of serotonergic subclasses. (C) Micrographs showing HSN 5HT staining and tph-1::gfp reporter expression defects of ast-1(ot417), unc-86(n846), sem-4(n1971), hlh-3(tm1688), egl-46(sy628) and egl-18(ok290) mutant animals (quantified in E). Scale bar: 5 μm. (D) Micrographs showing expression defects in the K+/Cl- cotransporter kcc-2::gfp reporter, a terminal feature of HSN not related to 5HT signaling, and normal expression of the extracellular matrix gene kal-1, indicating HSN is still present. (E) Heatmap summary of single TF mutant characterization. Statistically significant expression defects compared to wild type are indicated with a black frame. flp-19: FMRF-like peptide; ida-1: Tyr phosphatase-like receptor; lgc-55: amine-gated Cl- channel; nlg-1: neuroligin; rab-3: ras GTPase; unc-17: vesicular acetylcholine transporter; unc-40: netrin receptor. n.a: not analyzed. See Source data 1 for primary data and Fisher's exact test p-values and Figure 1—figure supplement 2 and Supplementary file 1 for analysis of additional alleles. n > 100 cells per condition.

Figure 1.

Figure 1—figure supplement 1. Each serotonergic neuron subclass expresses different sets of genes.

Figure 1—figure supplement 1.

Heat map representation of known HSN, NSM and ADF expressed genes [from (Hobert et al., 2016)]. Only the 5HT pathway genes and one additional gene (nlp-3) are expressed by the three serotonergic subclasses.
Figure 1—figure supplement 2. Schematic representation of analyzed HSN TF combination alleles.

Figure 1—figure supplement 2.

See Supplementary file 1 for phenotype description.