Fig. 3. Developmental timing of C. elegans is dependent upon bacterial diet.

a The molting reporter strain mgls49[mlt-10p::gfp-pest ttx-3p::gfp]IV allows for the visualization of molting between larval stages of development into adulthood. The time between peaks represents the period at each larval stage, while time between troughs represent time spent molting. Analysis was carried out after this strain was raised on each bacterial food for 20 generations. b–f Developmental timing of worms raised on each food relative to OP50. All diets showed accelerated development into adulthood when compared to worms raised on OP50. g Volcano plot showing how many of the differentially expressed genes are related to development. The number of genes on each bacterial food are labeled in the legend. All genes have a p value < 0.01. h Heat map of development genes that are significant with a p value < 0.01 in at least one of the five bacterial diets, relative to the OP50 bacterial diet.