HmcFIG 2: Head mesodermal cell.

A. Embryo, 430 minutes after first cell cleavage, left medial plane of focus. After they are born as sisters of Z1 and Z4 blast cells from MS lineage, the hmc and hmc homolog (dotted circles, ventral side of the embryo) migrate circumferentially (arrowed paths) to the dorsal side of the embryo. (Orange ovals) hmc and hmc homolog in their dorsal positions. The hmc homolog later goes through programmed cell death (marked with an “X”).
B. Schematic drawing of the cross section of the adult hmc cell at the level of the pharynx grinder in the terminal bulb. Two circumferentially directed processes travel in the pseudocoelom around the pharynx to meet at the ventral midline and then merge. (Yellow) Pseudocoelom; (light orange line) BL of the pharynx.
C. Schematic drawing of the adult hmc, left lateral view. The hmc soma is located at the dorsal side between the posterior of the terminal bulb and the anterior intestine. One long hmc process runs posteriorly at the dorsal side between the dorsal hypodermal ridge and dorsal muscle arms. Two circumferential processes travel to the ventral side and merge between the two excretory gland cell bodies. One anteriorly growing process stays in close contact with the right-side excretory gland process and terminates posterior to the loop of the gland process. Another process grows posteriorly between the ventral hypodermis and the ventral muscle arms.
D. (Top) Schematic drawing of the hmc (orange) as seen from the dorsal side. (NR) Nerve ring. (Bottom panel) Corresponding epifluorescent image of the hmc in a strain expressing a GFP-tagged transgene. (Strain source: Z-W. Wang and B. Chen.)
E&F. Epifluorescent images from two animals expressing the reporter gene gly18::GFP in hmc, both left lateral views. (Strain source: C.E. Warren, A. Krizus, and J.W. Dennis.) Bar, 10 μm.

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