Figure 6

ceh-13 affects vulval patterning. A, Vulval morphology in ceh-13(-) mutant hermaphrodites. White arrows indicate vulval protrusions (protruded vulval phenotype; Pvl), the arrowhead indicate an ectopic vulva (top). ceh-13(-) mutants exhibit variable vulval morphologies, including Pvl (8%), Multivulva (Muv; 0.2%) and Egg-laying defective (Egl; 14%) phenotypes (N = 200). B, Mutational inactivation of ceh-13 decreases vulval induction in synMuv AB double mutant animals. For each triple mutant: P < 0.001; for statistics, see the Material and Methods. lin-8 and lin-15A are class A synMuv genes, while lin-53 and lin-15B are class B synMuv genes. Single mutants defective in either of the synMuv A or B pathways have normal vulval morphology (data not shown), whereas synMuv AB double mutant are Muv. Wild-type animals actually have no vulval protrusion (their normal vulval structure is considered as 1 protrusion in the figure).