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[
Nature,
1997]
Who scapes the lurking sepent's mortal sting? Not he that sets his foot upon her back. Even the smallest of worms will turn, when trodden on.
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[
New York Times,
1991]
Through a microscope, they look like tiny crystal serpents, curving and slithering across the dish with an almost opiated languor, doubling back on themselves as though discovering their tails for the first time, or bumping up against a neighbor clumsily and then slowly recoiling. Beneath their translucent skin the pulsing muscle cells and nerve fibers are clearly visible, a sight so strange and so exquisite that it is hard to believe these creatures are common roundworms, found in gardens and compost heaps everywhere. And it is harder still to believe that such slippery squiggles of life are fast changing the face of fundamental biology.
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[
Nature,
1998]
Cytochrome c leads a double life. When a cell is called on to commit apoptotic suicide, cytochrome c relocalizes from the mitochondria to the cytosol. There, it helps to activate the foot-soldiers of apoptosis - the death proteases known as caspases. How cytochrome c escapes from the mitochondria is still a matter of debate, but it is clear that certain elements within the apoptotic regulatory hierarchy do not condone such behavior. In particular, overexpression of the cell-death suppressors Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL prevents the release of cytochrome c, suggesting that these proteins act upstream of cytochrome c in the pathway to death. However, on pages 449 and 496 of this issue, Zhivotovsky et al. and Rosse et al. show that Bcl-2 can also protect cells downstream of cytochrome c release, forcing a re-evaluation of this newly acquired dogma.
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[
Science,
1996]
In creatures from worms to people, it takes two sexes to reproduce, but it's often the female who gets stuck with the real work of childbearing. This division of labor is even mirrored in sperm and eggs. The unfertilized eggs of fruit flies, for example, already contain the molecular signals needed to direct one of the first events in embryonic growth, the creation of distinct body segments. The paternal contribution to early development, in contrast, seems paltry. Sperm carries nuclear material and organelles called centrosomes - organizing sites for cell division - that come into play later on, but no biochemical factors that guide early embryogenesis have been traced back to the father. In the January issue of the journal Development, however, molecular biologist Heidi Browning of the University of Colorado and developmental geneticist Susan Strome of Indiana University report that SPE-11, a protein produced only in the sperm of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, may play a crucial role during the first few minutes after the embryo is fertilized.
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[
Science,
1998]
The near completion of the sequence of the C. elegans genome should provide researchers with a gold mine of information on topics ranging from evolution to gene
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[
Nature,
2003]
The genome of the microscopic worm Caenorhabditis briggsae has been sequenced, and show some remarkable differences from the genome of the better known - and physically similar - C. elegans.
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[
BMB Rep,
2018]
Mitochondria are crucial organelles that generate cellular energy and metabolites. Recent studies indicate that mitochondria also regulate immunity. In this review, we discuss key roles of mitochondria in immunity against pathogen infection and underlying mechanisms, focusing on discoveries using Caenorhabditis elegans. Various mitochondrial processes, including mitochondrial surveillance mechanisms, mitochondrial unfolded protein response (UPRmt), mitophagy, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, contribute to immune responses and resistance of C. elegans against pathogens. Biological processes of C. elegans are usually conserved across phyla. Thus, understanding the mechanisms of mitochondria-mediated defense responses in C. elegans may provide insights into similar mechanisms in complex organisms, including mammals.
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[
Nat Neurosci,
2001]
A characterization of C. elegans lacking the gene for Rim suggests that this protein may be involved in pruning synaptic vesicles for fusion, not in docking or organizing active zones.
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[
Science,
1997]
A gene that helps control the life-span of the nematode C. elegans encodes the worm version of the insulin receptor, thereby providing a possible link between aging and glucose metabolism.
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[
Nat Neurosci,
2003]
A new study in this issue demonstrates that two GABAergic motor neurons in C. elegans are excitatory at target muscles because GABA activates a ligand-gated cation conductance, which is structurally similar to several other ligand-gated channels.