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. 2021 Aug 27;9:688788. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2021.688788

FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 2

Lactation by C. elegans hermaphrodites, and its implications. (A) Trophallaxis (“milk” provision) by C. elegans. Top left: schedule of production of eggs, unfertilized oocytes and vented yolk by wild-type C. elegans hermaphrodites (20°C); *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, one-way ANOVA. Bottom left: L1 larva with ingested yolk in intestinal lumen (reproduced from Kern et al., 2021). Green: yolk marked with VIT-2:GFP (arrows); green dots are autofluorescent gut granules. Red, reflective confocal microscopy to highlight intestinal lumen (intestinal cell apices). Right: scheme showing transition from egg laying to yolk (milk) venting after hermaphrodite self-sperm depletion. (B) Implications: two interpretations of origins of intestinal atrophy. Left: After sperm depletion the program for yolk synthesis runs on to become a futile quasi-program (Ezcurra et al., 2018). Right: after sperm depletion the program for yolk production becomes a costly program supporting lactation (Kern et al., 2021).