WormMine: ExpressionPattern Expr1621

• Pattern: Intense staining showed in all major nerve bundles (the nerve ring and dorsal and ventral nerve cords) and all minor longitudinal and circumferential process tracts and bundles of sensory processes. Staining was visible in neuronal cell bodies but not in nuclei. Outside the pharynx, all neurons, but no other cells, stained with anti-UNC-76 antisera. Specifically, no staining was observed in cells that flank the ventral or dorsal nerve cords, such as body wall muscles or hypodermal cells. UNC-76 staining was visible throughout the nervous system of animals at all developmental stages from newly hatched larvae through adults. Embryos were not sufficiently permeabilized to allow anti-UNC-76 antibody staining, but unc-76::lacZ fusions that appeared to be expressed normally in larvae and adults were expressed in a few cells, the identities of which were not determined, in embryos of about 200 cells, before the outgrowth of the first axons. UNC-76 staining in axons was strong throughout development, whereas cell body staining was strong in young larvae, but weaker in adults except for cell bodies in the head and tail ganglia. Of neurons with laterally positioned cell bodies, only the CAN and HSN cell bodies consistently contained UNC-76 protein in adults. The presence of C terminally truncated UNC-76 proteins in axons of mutant worms suggested that axon-targeting activity of UNC-76 resides in the N-terminal third of the protein.
• Primary Identifier: Expr1621
• Remark: No neuronal fluorescence was observed in worms stained with any of the three preimmune sera, and staining was reduced or nearly eliminated in all eight mutant unc-76 strains. Pharyngeal UNC-76 expression was not visible, but pharyngeal cells were probably not made accessible to antibodies during fixation because they lacked the background stain seen in the rest of the animal.
• Subcellular Localization: UNC-76 protein was observed throughout the axons of wild-type animals, including some nonfasciculated axon segments known to be normal in unc-76 mutant animals (all motor neuron commissures and the ventral-directed segments of the HSN, PDE, and PVD axons).

8 Anatomy Terms

Definition	Name	Synonym	Primary Identifier
a large process bundle that runs along the vental mid-line extending from the ventral region of the nerve ring.	ventral nerve cord	ventral cord	WBbt:0005829
Herm. specific motor neurons (die in male embryo), innervate vulval muscles, serotonergic	HSNL	lineage name: ABplapppappa	WBbt:0004758
Herm. specific motor neurons (die in male embryo), innervate vulval muscles, serotonergic	HSNR	lineage name: ABprapppappa	WBbt:0004757
the most extensive region of neuropil in the animal, consists of a large toroidal bundle of processes.	nerve ring	circumpharyngeal nerve ring	WBbt:0006749
a bundle of nerve processes that runs along the dorsal mid-line of the animal.	dorsal nerve cord	dorsal cord	WBbt:0006750
neuron that senses external stimuli and transduce them to signals internal to the organism.	sensory neuron		WBbt:0005759
Process runs along excretory canal, no synapses, essential for survival	CANL	lineage name: ABalapaaapa	WBbt:0004949
Process runs along excretory canal, no synapses, essential for survival	CANR	lineage name: ABalappappa	WBbt:0004947

1 Genes

WormBase Gene ID	Gene Name	Sequence Name	Organism
WBGene00006808	unc-76	C01G10.11	Caenorhabditis elegans

1 Life Stages

Remark	Definition	Other Name	Public Name	Primary Identifier
	All C. elegans development stages, including embryo, larva and adult stage.		all stages Ce	WBls:0000002