Figure 1. Expression and Characterization of Pnlp-17 in PVQ Neurons of C. elegans:A. Pnlp-17::mScarlet::
tbb-2 3'UTR expression is specific to PVQ neurons from extrachromosomal arrays in hermaphrodites (top panel) and males (bottom panel). B. Single-copy Pnlp-17::mScarlet transgenes inserted by MosTI (El Mouridi et al., 2022) are easily visible in hermaphrodites. 20x magnification. Scale bars: 100 µm. C. Characteristics and quantification of the short 300 bp
nlp-17 promoter. D. Schematic of standard BioPart expression vectors for PVQ expression. Unmodified gfp or mScarlet vectors can be used to identify PVQ neurons. Standard restriction sites allow cell-specific expression with N-terminal (ApaI) and C-terminal (SmaI) fluorophore fusions or complete fluorophore exchange (BsaI). The vectors are compatible with single-copy insertions (MosTI) and expression from extra-chromosomal arrays. E. The short 300 bp promoter is easily synthesized and has been included as a standard feature in an online tool for optimizing transgene design and synthesis (www.wormbuilder.org/transgenebuilder) (Vargas-Velazquez, El Mouridi, Alkhaldi, and Frøkjær-Jensen C, manuscript in preparation).