Nuclear counts of the Caenorhabditis elegans L1 larva and adult.

Caenorhabditis elegans embryonic development is strongly determinitive or mosaic. Most cells in the hatching larva have arisen through invariant cell lineages: that is their origins can be traced back unambiguously to founder blastomeres. This allows the effects of disruption of embryonic development (by physical manipulation or mutation) to be traced with relative ease.

Nuclear counts for the newly hatched L1 larva are given for each of the founder blastomeres, divided by cell and tissue type. The total number of nuclei is then given for the L1, followed by the number of blast cells (cells of the L1 larva which go on to divide in later development), and the nuclear count for the adult. Numbers are for hermaphrodites: male counts are given by +/- symbols after the count (ie neurons 200 +2 means that the male has 202). The cells of the intestine (progeny of the E blastomere) undergo additional rounds of DNA replication without nuclear division and are ~64n in the adult.

Taken from Appendix 1 of W.B. Wood (1988) The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, Cold Spring Harbor Press, itself based on Sulston et al. (1983) Developmental Biology 100:64-119

Larval	AB	MS	E	C	D	P4	total		blast cells		adult total
Hypodermis
	72			13			85		35		213 -2
Body nervous system
neurons	200 +2			2			202 +2				282 +79
supporting cells	40						40				50 +6
ring glia		6					6				6
Body mesoderm
muscle	1	28		32	20		81				111 +25
coelomocytes		4					4				6 -1
excretory system	4						4				4
hmc		1					1				1
mesoblast (M)		1					1		1
Alimentary tract
arcade	9						9				9
pharynx
structural	16	2					18				18
neurons	14	6					20				20
muscles	19	18					37				37
glands		5					5				5
pharyngeal/intestinal valve		6					6				6
intestine			20				20		14		34
intestinal/rectal valve	2						2				2
muscle	3	1					4				4
rectum	9						9		1 +4		8 +23
Gonad
somatic		2					2		2		143 -88
germ line							2		2		(indefinite)
Total Survivors	389 +2	80	20	47	20	2	558 +2		55 +4		959 +72
Apoptotic cell deaths	98 -2	14		1			113 -2				131 +17
Total produced	487	94	20	48	20	2	671				1090 +87