He age-dependent loss of transition zone nuclei and earlier look of full-length synapsis in pph4.1 mutants suggests that chromosomes have less time to actively look for partners, and are less in a position to delay synapsis in response to nonhomology, as they age. However, younger pph-4.1 mutant animals show no increase in autosomal pairing Nikkomycin Z Cancer levels relative to older animals. Thus we infer that young pph-4.1 mutants retain the capability to delay synapsis in the absence of homologousPhosphatase Manage of Bexagliflozin Epigenetic Reader Domain Meiotic Chromosome DynamicsPLOS Genetics | plosgenetics.orgPhosphatase Handle of Meiotic Chromosome DynamicsFigure 5. DSB initiation is perturbed in an age-dependent manner in pph-4.1 mutants. (A) Wild-type and pph-4.1 nuclei shown with DAPI staining in magenta and a-RAD-51 staining in green. Prime, c-irradiation at 10Gy restores RAD-51 staining to pph-4.1 nuclei. Bottom, quantitation of RAD-51 focus formation in wild-type and mutant animals. RAD-51 concentrate numbers are depicted as a box plot, with box indicating mean and quartiles. Significance was assessed by way of the Mann-Whitney test. Three gonads have been scored for every single condition; the numbers of nuclei scored in zones 1 are as follows: for wild-type, 316, 312, 256, 252, 231, 198, 120; for pph-4.1, 231, 244, 237, 245, 231, 205, 136. (B) Quantitation of RAD-51 foci with increasing maternal age. Numbers of foci in each and every of 7 zones are depicted with box plots as in (A). Leading, concentrate numbers compared amongst rad-54 and rad-54; pph-4.1 animals at 24 h post-L4. Bottom, comparison at 72 h post-L4. Asterisks indicate considerable variations due to loss of pph-4.1; diamonds between prime and bottom graphs show significance on account of age; comparisons have been performed via the Mann-Whitney test. 3 gonads had been scored for each and every condition; the numbers of nuclei scored in zones 1 are as follows: for rad-54 24 h, 252, 313, 443, 397, 311, 236, 111; for rad-54 72 h, 237, 321, 397, 467, 395, 268, 64; for rad-54; pph-4.1 24 h, 288, 288, 306, 359, 300, 232, 70; for rad-54; pph-4.1 72 h, 255, 230, 262, 251, 229, 218, 118. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1004638.gpairing, but this delay will not cause larger pairing levels as a result of the absence of PPH-4.1. The SUN-1 protein is usually phosphorylated throughout the transition zone and early pachytene, and meiotic errors are correlated with persistence of SUN-1 phosphorylation [8]. We consequently tested regardless of whether the phosphorylation state of SUN-1 in pph-4.1 mutants changed in correlation with the shortened transition zone in older germlines, applying an antibody that specifically detects SUN-1 phosphorylated on Ser8 (SUN-1:Ser8p) (Figure 7). We measured the proportion on the gonad occupied by the SUN-1:Ser8p signal at 24 h, 48 h, and 72 h post-L4 as an indication of the persistence of SUN-1 phosphorylation. At all timepoints, we observed a important increase in the proportion from the meiotic zone (from TZ entry to cellularization) containing cells positive for SUN-1:Ser8p in pph-4.1 mutants in comparison with wildtype (Figure 7B). SUN-1:Ser8p is limited to nuclei using a transition zone or early pachytene appearance in all wild-type gonads, and in pph-4.1 mutants at 24 h post-L4. Nonetheless, at 72 h post-L4, pph-4.1 mutant gonads also contain late pachytene nuclei with SUN-1:Ser8p staining (Figure S7B). This observation explains the persistence of SUN-1:Ser8p-positive nuclei in aged pph-4.1 mutants with shorter transition zones and suggests that SUN-1 phosphorylation and nuclear morphology are uncouple.