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. 2022 Mar 24;11:e76003. doi: 10.7554/eLife.76003

Figure 6. ceh-34 affects other identity features of pharyngeal neurons.

(A) Representative pictures and quantification showing sensory receptor expression loss in ceh-34 mutants. Reporter transgenes used are glr-7 (otIs809), gur-3 (nIs780), and str-97 (otIs716). str-97 (otIs716) is expressed in M1 in adult animals, but also in M4 in first larval stage animals. Expression in M4 is lost in ceh-34 mutant, but expression in M1 could not be reliably scored. Animals were scored at the L1 stage. Statistical analysis was performed using Fisher’s exact test. N is indicated within each bar and represents number of neurons scored. (B) Representative pictures and quantification showing effect of ceh-34 on antimicrobial defense genes. Reporter genes used are spp-12 (otIs868) and CRISPR/Cas9-engineered reporter alleles for flr-2 (syb4861) and htrl-1 (syb4895). Animals were scored at the L1 stage. Statistical analysis was performed using Fisher’s exact test, chi-square test, or unpaired t-test. N is indicated within each bar and represents number of neurons scored. (C) Representative pictures and quantification showing effect of ceh-34 on pan-pharyngeal genes. Reporter gene is the CRISPR/Cas9-engineered reporter allele kin-36 (syb4677). Animals were scored at the L1 stage. Statistical analysis was performed using unpaired t-test.

Figure 6.

Figure 6—figure supplement 1. Summary of previous single cell transcriptomic analysis of genes broadly expressed in pharyngeal neurons.

Figure 6—figure supplement 1.

scRNA data was extracted from the Cengen App and displayed in a heatmap format, as previously described (Taylor et al., 2021). The F13H10.6 gene was included here as well because of its striking expression outside the pharyngeal nervous system, in what appear to be exclusively sensory neurons, in line with most if not all pharyngeal neurons also having sensory function. Conversely, previously identified pan-sensory genes (e.g. cilium-related genes) do not show expression in pharyngeal neurons.
Figure 6—figure supplement 2. ceh-34 affects ceh-28 expression.

Figure 6—figure supplement 2.

Representative pictures and quantification are shown. Reporter gene used is ceh-28 (nIs175). Twenty percent of worms show a cell outside the pharynx ectopically expressing ceh-28. Animals were scored at the L1 stage. Statistical analysis was performed using Fisher’s exact test. N is indicated within each bar and represents number of neurons scored.