Cell Lineage - Lineage Before

To Lineage – How it was determined

): (—- "but it sufficed to get us started in earnest on the cell lineage. The significance was that although Sydney had wanted from the beginning of the project to follow cell lineages, it was presumed that the most interesting development happened in the egg. So this was the only stage that had been studied, but it was proving very difficult to see anything. It meant, however, that there were already Nomarski DIC (differential interference contrast) microscopes in the lab. —-Seeing my first cell division was an exciting moment, because it implied that determining the larval lineage was possible (Figure 4). (p. 2)"

Time spent: Dr. John Sulston spent one and a half years (in the dark) to complete C. elegans cell lineage.

Hand drawn: Dr. Sulston hand drew the real time worm development. The C. elegans embryo development wasn’t recorded in video for lineaging, it was all done by hand.

Microscopy used: Nomarski Optics (also known as Differential Interference Contrast (DIC) microscope) was used.

Image generated:

(About this image: an one-cell embryo with paternal and maternal nuclei meeting in the center).

More information on the completion of C. elegans cell lineage.

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References

1. Sulston, J. E., Schierenberg, E., White, J. G., & Thomson, J. N., The embryonic cell lineage of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, Developmental Biology 100, 64-119 (1983). Available online: retrieved 12/10/04, from http://www.wormatlas.org/Sulstonemblin_1983/toc.html.