The Caenorhabditis elegans hermaphrodite egg-laying system comprises several tissues, including the uterus and vulva.
lin-11 encodes a LIM domain transcription factor needed for certain vulval precursor cells to divide asymmetrically. Based on
lin-11 expression studies and the
lin-11 mutant phenotype, we find that
lin-11 is also required for C. elegans uterine morphogenesis. Specifically,
lin-11 is expressed in the ventral uterine intermediate precursor (pi) cells and their progeny (the utse and
uv1 cells), which connect the uterus to the vulva. Like (pi) cell induction, the uterine
lin-11 expression responds to the uterine anchor cell and the
lin-12-encoded receptor. In wild type animals, the utse, which forms the planar process at the uterine-vulval interface, fuses with the anchor cell. We found that, in
lin-11 mutants, utse differentiation was abnormal, the utse failed to fuse with the anchor cell and a functional uterine-vulval connection was not made. These findings indicate that
lin-11 is essential for uterine-vulval morphogenesis.