Fig. 4. Potential LNKN-1 interactors displayed a similar gonad migration phenotype in hermaphrodites.

(A–B). Loss of lnkn-1 resulted in premature stopping of gonad migration in hermaphrodites (A) lnkn-1(+) control. (B) lnkn-1(sy1596) worms have a shortened dorsal-distal half of the gonad. (C-D) The premature stopping phenotype is defined by comparing the value of Centripetal migration (%) of the mutants to that of the wild-type (N2). The Centripetal migration (%) is determined by the ratio of dorsal-distal gonad arm length to that of ventral-proximal gonad arm length. The arm lengths were approximated as the distance from the vulval to the ventral-dorsal turn of the U-shaped gonad for the ventral-proximal gonad arm length; and the distance from the distal end of the gonad to the ventral-dorsal turn for the dorsal-distal gonad arm length. See materials and methods for detail. (D) Examination of gonad migration in hermaphrodites. Mutation in some of the candidate genes also causes pathfinding or other gonadal development defects in a number of animals. For the purpose of this examination, only gonads that made the centripetal migration was included. The pathfinding effects were consistently observed in cdc-25.1(ok1888) and rod-1(tm6186) and occurred at a lower frequency in tat-5(tm1741) and apc-2(ok1657) mutant animals. Rod-1(tm6186) animals were also observed to have missing gonad arms (n≥10. All comparisons were with the wild-type, **: p<0.01, ***: p<0.001, ****: p<0.0001, Student’s t-test).