Measuring the acidification of the phagosomal lumen in live C. elegans embryos.

In metazoans, the acidification of the phagosomal lumen is essential for the efficient degradation of cargoes. Here, we present a protocol for measuring the rate of acidification inside phagosomal lumen containing apoptotic cells in living C. elegans embryos.

A novel crosstalk between autophagosomes and phagosomes that facilitates the clearance of apoptotic cells.

During an animal's life, many cells undergo apoptosis, a form of genetically programmed cell death. These cells are swiftly engulfed by other cells through phagocytosis and subsequently degraded inside phagosomes. Phagocytosis and macroautophagy/autophagy are two different cellular events: whereas phagocytosis is a cell-eat-cell event, autophagy, or "self-eating", occurs within one cell, resulting in the enveloping of protein aggregates or damaged organelles within double-membrane autophagosomes.

Autophagosomes fuse to phagosomes and facilitate the degradation of apoptotic cells in .

Autophagosomes are double-membrane intracellular vesicles that degrade protein aggregates, intracellular organelles, and other cellular components. During the development of the nematode , many somatic and germ cells undergo apoptosis. These cells are engulfed and degraded by their neighboring cells.

Calcium ions trigger the exposure of phosphatidylserine on the surface of necrotic cells.

Intracellular Ca2+ level is under strict regulation through calcium channels and storage pools including the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Mutations in certain ion channel subunits, which cause mis-regulated Ca2+ influx, induce the excitotoxic necrosis of neurons. In the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, dominant mutations in the DEG/ENaC sodium channel subunit MEC-4 induce six mechanosensory (touch) neurons to undergo excitotoxic necrosis.

High-content behavioral profiling reveals neuronal genetic network modulating Drosophila larval locomotor program.

Background: Two key questions in understanding the genetic control of behaviors are: what genes are involved and how these genes interact. To answer these questions at a systems level, we conducted high-content profiling of Drosophila larval locomotor behaviors for over 100 genotypes.

Results: We studied 69 genes whose C.