Fig. 2: Volume divergence among individuals is less than expected by the heterogeneity in growth rates.
From: Coupling of growth rate and developmental tempo reduces body size heterogeneity in C. elegans
a Volume trajectories for all individuals measured in one experimental repeat (n = 86). Colours represent the rank of growth rate at each larval stage (grey = slowest, red = fastest). b Histogram of the growth rate deviations in % from the population mean measured at indicated larval stages. The growth rate of each individual and larval stage was determined by a linear regression to ln(volume) against time excluding the first 10% and the last 25% of the larval stage. c Histogram of body volume deviations in % from the mean measured at birth and indicated larval moults. Red line shows distribution of volume resulting from random shuffling of growth rate and larval stage duration among individuals. d Coefficient of variation of volume during development. grey: box plot of the average CV measured experimentally in the different day-to-day repeats. red: expected CV based on 1000x random shuffling of growth rate and larval stage duration. The measured CV was significantly smaller than the randomized control at all stages (p = 2*10−7, 6*10−8, 6*10−8, 8*10−8, two-sided ranksum test for M1–M4). n = 10 biologically independent experiments. Boxplots: central line: median, box: interquartile ranges (IQR), whisker: ranges except extreme outliers (>1.5*IQR).
