Cori Bargmann says:
starved worms have way less gut granules. way less.
if you can stand to fix them, fixing utterly destroys gut fluorescence.
jin figured that out. just a short paraformaldehyde fix a la antibody
staining (an hour or so).
Thomas Burglin says:
supposedly the flu mutants out there are of no use for such
purposes.
The vesicles burst nicely under the UV, sparkling effects...
I also got a very informative answer from Lew Jacobson, which I
somehow have lost. I remember two things from it. First, he says
"The gut granules are definitely lysosomes", and cites this reference
to prove it:
Clokey and Jacobson (1986) The autofluorescent lipofuscin granules
in the intestinal cells of C. elegans are secondary
lysosomes. Mechanisms of Ageing and Development 35: 79-84.
Second, he says daf-4 mutants have greatly reduced gut fluorescence
because they have greatly reduced endocytosis.
Answers came from the following:
Cori Bargmann (cori at itsa.ucsf.edu)
Marty Chalfie (chalfie at cubsps.bio.columbia.edu)
David Chitwood (dchitwood at asrr.arsusda.gov)
Gaetan Borgonie (Gaetan=Borgonie%reszoo%Biomse.RUG at vinarc01.rug.ac.be)
Michael Hengartner (hengartn at cshl.org)
Andras Fodor (fodoran at ludens.elte.hu)
Thomas Burglin (BURGLIN at Frodo.MGH.Harvard.EDU)
Lewis Jacobson (ljac at vms.cis.pitt.edu)
--
Leon Avery (214) 648-2420 (office)
Department of Biochemistry -2768 (lab)
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center -8856 (fax)
5323 Harry Hines Blvd leon at eatworms.swmed.edu
Dallas, TX 75235-9038
