Practice question

Question

In C. elegans during embryogenesis, an anchor cell and 6 hypodermal vulval precursor cells (VPCs) get involved in forming the vulva. If 3 of the hypodermal VPCs are killed by a laser beam, a normal vulva is still formed. This could be due to the following possible reasons. A. Six hypodermal VPCs form equivalence group of cells, out of which only 3 participate in vulva formation and 3 cells remain as reserve cells. B. When 3 hypodermal VPCs are killed, the 3 neighboring hypodermal non- VPCs get freshly recruited. C. Anchor cell functions as an inducer which can induce epithelial cells of the gonad to gel recruited to compensate for the loss. D. Anchor cell acts as an inducer which can spatially induce only 3 hypodermal cells to form the vulva. Which combination of the above statements is correct?