Elsevier

Developmental Biology

Volume 212, Issue 1, 1 August 1999, Pages 12-24
Developmental Biology

Regular Article
Competence and Commitment of Caenorhabditis elegans Vulval Precursor Cells

https://doi.org/10.1006/dbio.1999.9357Get rights and content
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Abstract

Multipotent Caenorhabditis elegans vulval precursor cells (VPCs) choose among three fates (1°, 2°, and 3°) in response to two intercellular signals: the EGF family growth factor LIN-3 induces 1° fates at high levels and 2° fates at low levels; and a signal via the receptor LIN-12 induces 2° fates. If the level of LIN-3 signal is reduced by a lin-3 hypomorphic mutation, the daughters of the VPC closest to the anchor cell (AC), P6.p, are induced by the AC. By expressing LIN-3 as a function of time in LIN-3-deficient animals, we find that both VPCs and the daughters of VPCs are competent to respond to LIN-3, and VPC daughters lose competence after fusing with the hypodermis. We also demonstrate that the daughters of VPCs specified to be 2° can respond to LIN-3, indicating that 2° VPCs are not irreversibly committed. We propose that maintenance of VPC competence after the first cell cycle and the prioritization of the 1° fate help ensure that P6.p will become 1°. This mechanism of competence regulation might have been maintained from ancestral nematode species that used induction both before and after VPC division and serves to maximize the probability that a functional vulva is formed.

Keywords

induction
cell cycle
competence
EGF
pattern formation

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