Programmed cell death (Barbara Conradt, Julia Hatzold, Claus Schertl)
1. Detecting dying cells
Dying cells can be detected by their morphology and refractility using differential interference contrast microscopy (DIC; see above; Sulston and Horvitz, 1977). A cell corpse appears as a highly refractile, button-like structure (Figure 13), which is rapidly engulfed and degraded by neighboring cells. Cell death occurs in the C. elegans soma mainly during embryogenesis and in the female germ line as a normal course of development (Gumienny et al., 1999). Germ-cell death can also be induced by DNA-damaging agents or by pathogenic bacteria (Aballay and Ausubel, 2001; Gartner et al., 2000). Below we present several protocols for detecting dying cells in the soma and germ line.
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Figure 13. DIC image of wild-type embryo at comma stage of development. Arrows point to the round, button-like corpses (Julia Hatzold and Barbara Conradt).