DCutFIG 9: Cuticle lining of excretory pore (EP) and rectum.

A. SEM of excretory pore in adult hermaphrodite. EP, excretory pore. (Image source: [Hall] N513A_1463.)
B. SEM of dauer EP, indicating thickened EP and bodywall cuticle. The EP cuticle lacks the striated zone of the bodywall cuticle. (Image source: [D. Riddle] daf-4 dauer 51-7-1_68).
C&D. SEM imaging indicates that the dauer rectum (arrow) remains open in C. elegans, and is not covered by a plug as in some other nematode species. This dauer animal was prepared for SEM by Ken Nguyen and Leslie Gunther in the Hall lab, and photographed on the scanning electron microscope (SEM) by Juliana Castrillon, a student at the BioBus in New York (www.biobus.org).

Click on picture for full resolution image.