<i>vha-19(RNAi)</i>embryos are osmotically sensitive and appear to have a cytokinesis defect.

<p>A) Embryos cut out of the uterus of wild type (A-B,F) or pie-1::H2B::GFP [AZ212] (E) adult <i>C. elegans</i> fed control or <i>vha-19</i> dsRNA for 24 hours. Note the presence of an eggshell in all embryos in A (arrow heads), despite the random clusters of nuclei and compression of some <i>vha-19(RNAi)</i> embryos. Note also the presence of a polar body (pb) in a <i>vha-19(RNAi)</i> embryo in E, even though the nuclei are not cellularized (inset, bright field image), and that in F, non-cellularized, small clusters of nuclei (square bracket) are surrounded by cleavage furrows (arrows) in the <i>vha-19(RNAi)</i> embryo. C) The percentage of <i>control(RNAi)</i> and <i>vha-19(RNAi)</i> embryos that swelled or shrunk in deionized water (mQ H2O), 150 mM potassium chloride (KCl) and 300 mM KCl. Examples of embryos from this osmolarity experiment are shown in B. D) Embryos in the uterus of adults fed control or <i>vha-19</i> dsRNA for 48 hours and stained with Acridine Orange. Note that embryos in the uterus of <i>control(RNAi)</i> adult excluded Acridine Orange (arrows) whereas the embryos in the uterus of the <i>vha-19(RNAi)</i> adult were permeable to Acridine Orange (bracket). Scale bars represent 100 µm in D and 10 µm in A-B,E and F.