Figure 9

Epifluorescence/DIC-merged images of wild-type C. elegans fed with bioconjugated FNDs. (a, b) Worms fed with dextran-coated FNDs (a) and BSA-coated FNDs (b) for 3 h. FNDs can be seen to be localized within the intestinal cells (blue solid arrows) and a few stay in the lumen (yellow dash arrow). (c and d) Worms fed with dextran-coated (c) and BSA-coated (d) FNDs for 3 h and recovered on to E. coli bacterial lawns for 1 h. In both cases, the FNDs staying in the lumen are excreted out, whereas the ones localized in the cells are retained. Insets: × 100 magnified images of the FNDs within the intestinal cells. Anterior is left and dorsal is up in all the figures. Scale bars are 50 μm. (e–g) Epifluorescence/DIC-merged images of an injected worm (e) and its progeny at the early (f) and late (g) embryonic stages. The FNDs dispersed in the distal gonad and oocytes at approximately 30 min after injection (e). Green arrows indicate bulk streaming of FNDs with cytoplasmic materials and the red triangle indicates the site of injection. Note that the injected FNDs are present in the cytoplasm of many cells in the early embryos (f) but predominantly in the intestinal cells of the late embryo (g). Scale bars are 10 μm. Reproduced and adapted with permission.⁹⁰ Copyright 2015, American Chemical Society.