Electron microscopy of lamin and the nuclear lamina in Caenorhabditis elegans

The nuclear lamina is found between the inner nuclear membrane and the peripheral chromatin. Lamins are the main components of the nuclear lamina, where they form protein complexes with integral proteins of the inner nuclear membrane, transcriptional regulators, histones and chromatin modifiers. Lamins are required for mechanical stability, chromatin organization, Pol II transcription, DNA replication, nuclear assembly, and nuclear positioning. Mutations in human lamins cause at least 13 distinct human diseases, collectively termed laminopathies, affecting muscle, adipose, bone, nerve and skin cells, and range from muscular dystrophies to accelerated aging. Caenorhabditis elegans has unique advantages in studying lamins and nuclear lamina genes including low complexity of lamina genes and the unique ability of bacterially expressed C. elegans lamin protein to form stable 10 nm fibers. In addition, transgenic techniques, simple application of RNA interference, sophisticated genetic analyses, and the production of a large collection of mutant lines, all make C. elegans especially attractive for studying the functions of its nuclear lamina genes. In this chapter we will include a short review of our current knowledge of nuclear lamina in C. elegans and will describe electron microscopy techniques used for their analyses.