C. Elegans Vulva

While working on a project where we are looking at the embryos inside the c. elegans worm, we came across this beautiful example of worm anatomy. This is the vulva of the c. elegans. Notice the magnificent smooth muscle. Click to enlarge.


This worm (provided by Ann Wehman of the Nance lab in the NYUMC Skirball Institute) was processed with high pressure freezing (By KD Derr at the NYSBC)and embedded in Epon. Sections were taken with a diamond knife at a thickness of 60 nm on a Leica UC6 ultramicrotome. The image was taken on a Philips CM12 TEM at 120kV with a Gatan 4k x 2.67k camera.


The c. elegans (Caenorhabditis elegans) is a roundworm about a millimeter long that lives in the dirt. They are frequently studied in biological research. NASA is even taking them into space.