Figure 4.

Effect of gene inhibition on C. elegans growth. The expression of target genes was inhibited using RNAi in the absence (upper panel) and presence (lower panel) of 100 μM cadmium. mtl-2 (gk125) mutant nematodes were grown on test plates for three days before collection (RNAi of gene mtl-2 was conducted using an mtl-1 null strain, mtl-1 (tm1770)). C. elegans body length, a measure of growth/development, was normalized to the mean body length in the RNAi control group under identical cadmium exposure conditions. Results are displayed as mean normalized body length ± SE (n = 200-500 nematodes).