BrdU (Bromodeoxyuridine) Is a Thymidine Analog That Can Be Naturally

Short Answer

BrdU (bromodeoxyuridine) is a thymidine analog that can be naturally incorporated into DNA (in place of thymidine) and detected by specific anti-BrdU antibodies. In an experiment to study the regeneration capabilities of Schmidtea mediterranea, you first fed the worms with BrdU-containing food for 30 minutes. After two hours, you fixed and incubated the worms with a fluorescently labeled anti-BrdU antibody, and observed its tissues with a fluorescence microscope. The result was that some nuclei are labeled with fluorescence while others are unlabeled. Would you expect to observe neoblasts mostly among cells that have (Y) or have not (N) been labeled with fluorescence? Are the neoblasts expected to be scattered throughout the body (S) or localized to a certain region (L)? If you fixed the worms after a week, instead of two hours, would you expect the number of nuclei with detectable fluorescence to increase (I), remain unchanged (U), or decrease (D) compared to these results? Write down your answer as a three-letter string, e.g. YSD.