Figure 1.

Serotonin signalling is required for the beneficial effects of ascr#10 on the oogenic germline. (a) Unlike wild-type N2 hermaphrodites [6], tph-1 hermaphrodites show no increase of germline precursor divisions in the presence of ascr#10. Germline proliferation was quantified as ‘mitotic events’ detected using phospho-Histone 3 (pH3) staining (magenta puncta indicated by an arrow in the inset) during day 2 of adulthood. Germline stained with DAPI, shown in blue. (b) Unlike wild-type N2 hermaphrodites [6], tph-1 hermaphrodites show no increase of germline cell death in the presence of ascr#10. Quantified using SYTO12 staining (indicated with an arrow in the inset) during day 3 of adulthood. In (a,b), black bars denote means. In (a,b), scale bars in the insets are 10 µm. (c) Percentage of unhatched embryos on versus off ascr#10 in the progeny of N2, tph-1 and mod-1 self-sperm depleted hermaphrodites mated on day 5 of adulthood to young males. (d) Percentage of unhatched embryos on versus off ascr#10 in the self-progeny of N2, tph-1 and mod-1 hermaphrodites during days 4 and 5 of adulthood. In (c,d), total numbers of tested embryos are indicated inside relevant bars. In (d), dots represent percentage of embryonic lethality in independent experiments. Asterisks indicate levels of statistical significance (* for p < 0.05, *** for p < 0.001). Kolmogorov–Smirnov test in (a,b), binomial test in (c,d). See electronic supplementary material, table S1 for primary data and details of statistical analyses. (Online version in colour.)