The C. elegans germline is organized as a syncytium in which each germ cell possesses an intercellular bridge that is maintained by a stable actomyosin ring and that connects it to a common pool of cytoplasm, termed the rachis. How germ cells undergo cytokinesis while maintaining this syncytial architecture is not completely understood. Here we use live imaging to characterize primordial germ cell (PGC) division in C. elegans first-stage larvae. We show that each PGC possesses a stable intercellular bridge that connects it to a common pool of cytoplasm, which we term the proto-rachis. We further show that the first PGC cytokinesis is incomplete and that the stabilized cytokinetic ring progressively moves toward the proto-rachis and eventually integrates into it. Our results support a model in which the initial expansion of the C. elegans syncytial germline occurs by incomplete cytokinesis, where one daughter germ cell inherits the actomyosin ring that was newly formed by stabilization of the cytokinetic ring, while the other inherits the pre-existing stable actomyosin ring. We propose that such a mechanism of iterative cytokinesis incompletion underpins C. elegans germline expansion and maintenance.
The initial expansion of the C. elegans syncytial germ line is coupled to primordial germ cell cytokinesis incompletion
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