Fig. 3: EAT-17 functions in the epidermis to regulate dendrite formation.

a A confocal image to show the expression pattern of the endogenous EAT-17. The experiment was repeated >3 times with similar results. Scale bar, 50 μm. b Confocal images of PVD morphologies of wildtype, eat-17(ok2983), eat-17 (ok2983) carrying distinct EAT-17F transgene driven by skin, muscle and PVD-specific promoters, respectively. All animals were at 1 day old adult stage. Scale bar, 20 μm. c, d Quantification of number of ectopic branches (c) and 4° branches (d) in a 100 μm region anterior to the PVD cell body for each strain. All values are presented as mean ± s.e.m. ns: not significant. ****p < 0.0001 (one-sided ANOVA with the Tukey correction). n = 20 animals for each column. e Confocal images to show the PVD dendrite morphologies of eat-17(ok2983) Ex[Phsp-16.48::eat-17f] with different treatments, including no heat-shock control and with heat-shock at distinct developmental stages. All animals were imaged at the 2 day old adult stage (48 h post L4 stage). Scale bar, 20 μm. f A cartoon showing the timing of PVD neurogenesis and time points when heat-shock treatment was performed. Note that after heat-shock treatment, animals were cultured at 20 ^oC to recover until subjected to confocal imaging. g, h Quantification of number of ectopic branches (g) and 4° branches (h) in a 100 μm region anterior to the PVD cell body for each strain. All values are presented as mean ± s.e.m. ns: not significant. ****p < 0.0001 (one-sided ANOVA with the Tukey correction). n = 20 animals were quantified for each column. For (c–h) source data are provided as a Source Data file.