Figure 6

dapk-1 might cooperate with pinn-1 to regulate nematode excitotoxicity. A) Epistasis analysis testing the involvement of dapk-1 and pinn-1 in nematode excitotoxicity. Since the combined mutant shows strong suppression of neurodegeneration compared to the starting strain, these observations strongly suggest that pinn-1 is not downstream of dapk-1 (though the data is not conclusive enough to choose between the possibilities of pinn-1 acting upstream or independently of dapk-1). B) Verification that the effects of dapk-1 and pinn-1 mutations on the dynamics of overall neurodegeneration in head neurons translates to survival of identified neurons in the adult (counting surviving GFP-labeled RIG neurons in young adult animals). C) One of the likely models that can account for our observations on the role of DAPK-1, PINN-1, and autophagy in nematode excitotoxicity.