Fig. 4.

Compartmentalized cell elimination. (A-D) Images of a dying C. elegans tail-spike cell at different stages of death. (A) An intact tail-spike cell with a soma and long process. The proximal process segment (p) undergoes localized beading and fragmentation (B) and is eliminated before the soma (s) and distal process (d) (C). The soma rounds (B,C). The distal segment undergoes bidirectional retraction into a compact structure (C,D) and is eventually engulfed and removed. The entire cell is eliminated in ∼150 min. The caspase CED-3 acts independently in each compartment. Adapted from Ghose et al. (2018). TSCpro, tail-spike cell promoter; myrGFP, myristoylated green fluorescent protein (GFP).