Widespread VPS-52 expression was detected in cytoplasmic puncta of many somatic tissues from early embryos on. In particular, VPS-52 is expressed in temporal continuity at all larval stages in the vulval and seam cells.
miR-52 GFP reporter was expressed most widely in hypodermal, muscle, neural, and interstitial cell types in both embryos and larvae. mir-52 was most strongly expressed in the pharynx and anterior embryo but was detectable in most other tissues.
GFP expression driven by vps-52 promoter is visible in all cell types: pharyngeal, intestine, distal tip cell, coelomocytes, body wall muscles, and neurons.
Double-antibody staining against SYD-2 and UNC-10 revealed that SYD-2 colocalizes with UNC-10 as discrete puncta of ~200-400 nm in diameter along the dorsal, ventral, and lateral nerve cords. Double-antibody staining against SYD-2 and UNC-13 revealed that SYD-2 also colocalizes with UNC-13. In both cases, the degree of colocalization was very high but not complete [92.9 +/- 2.3% for UNC-10 (n = 5) and 83.1 +/- 6.2% for UNC-13 (n = 6)]. Some SYD-2 puncta appear to stain with varying amounts of UNC-10 or UNC-13 and vice versa, and in some cases, SYD-2 puncta do not costain at all with UNC-10 or UNC-13.