Fig. 6

P12.pa ablation does not prevent initiation of B.al/rapaav death. a Percentages of P12.pa-ablated and mock-ablated males that have cytoplasmic refractility in B.al/rapaav, P _egl-1 ::4xNLS::gfp expression in B.al/rapaav, or death of B.al/rapaav. Percentage of survival of B.al/rapaav in mock-ablated animals is not significantly different from that of untreated animals in Fig. 1d (P = 0.3). b, c A P12.pa-deficient animal in which the secondary B.al/rapaav (arrow) had cytoplasmic refractility (b) and had P _egl-1 ::4xNLS::gfp expression (c), indicating that the cell-death process was initiated. Scale bars: 10 μm. All animals in panels (a–c) were of genotype nIs343; him-8. d A round, undead B.al/rapaav that was not engulfed in a P12.pa-deficient animal. White arrow points to the undead B.al/rapaav; the only membrane (red) visible around the B.al/rapaav nucleus (green) is that of the undead cell (since only one nucleus is located within that membrane), and no other cell’s membrane appears to enclose it in any plane. Full Z-stack of this animal is available as Additional file 5: Movie 5. e A B.arapaav corpse that was engulfed by B.alapaav in a P12.pa-deficient animal. The B.arapaav corpse (white arrow) appears to be completely inside the boundaries of the B.alapaav membrane (black in right panel). This membrane can be assigned to B.alapaav, because it contains the B.alapaav nucleus (black arrow). Full Z-stack of this animal is available as Additional file 6: Movie 6. Scale bars: 10 μm. f Outcomes of the secondary B.al/rapaav in P12.pa-ablated animals, showing that all surviving cells were unengulfed while most dying cells were engulfed. All animals in panels (d–f) were of the genotype nIs343; him-5(e1467ts) unc-76; nIs349; nEx2344