[
Worm Breeder's Gazette,
1992]
The Worm Breeder's Gazette (WBG) is now available in electronic format as part of the Worm Community System (WCS). See the accompanying article for WCS availability. We have converted the contents of the WBG into electronic form, including all articles from Vol 1 No 1, published in December 1975, to the latest Vol 12 No 1. The intention was to provide a complete archive so that every page was converted, except for material otherwise available electronically, such as the genome map and the bibliography. Rather than scan in images of the pages, the text was character recognized and marked up so that it can be searched using key words and displayed in a uniform (pretty) format. This makes the information more readily available at the cost of losing the historical variation of submitted printed formats. The figures were scanned and resized for readability. Thus, when using WCS, you can retrieve all WBG articles referencing a given phrase and quickly display their complete text with figures. The process for generating the electronic version was as follows. A paper copy of each issue was scanned using a Hewlett-Packard ScanJet Plus with a sheet feeder running the DeskScan software. This was connected to an Apple Macintosh II FX, where the conversion took place. For text pages, the Omnipage software was used to convert the digitalization to a Microsoft Word document. Surprisingly, most pages were recognized accurately with only a few errors. Word was then used to perform spelling correction to catch scanner errors and to mark up the text in pseudo-SGML to specify location of the title, author, and special words such as gene names. The proofreading was done by an undergraduate biology major. For figure pages (or for figures within pages), the DeskScan software was used to generate a TIFF file. The bitmaps were then resized and cleaned up using Adobe Photoshop. After conversion, the text and image files were downloaded to our Sun file server. The display software converts the marked-up text into its own internal format. It displays the title and author in large boldface followed by the rest of the text in pretty format. It is written in C for Unix machines under X-windows. The figures if any are displayed in adjacent windows from the TIFF format. There are currently some 1450 articles; a typical size is 6000 bytes for a text page and 20 kbytes for a figure image. The recommended usage is to obtain WCS and use the functionality therein. If there is sufficient interest, we will also make the raw files available (please note they contain formatting codes). There is also a stand alone Unix program which displays a table of contents for all issues, and allows you to read them. This project was carried out in about six months, using clerical help and undergraduate students. Special thanks are due to Eric Boyer, Lindy Fletcher, and Clay Sales. Thanks are also due to Samuel Ward, who donated his collection of WBGs as well as serving as the test user and to Mark Edgley, who provided missing copies.
[
Worm Breeder's Gazette,
1996]
There is precious little in the literature regarding the regenerative ability of nematodes (Poinar, 1988). The received wisdom has been that the determinate cleavage in these pseudocoelomates precludes any possibility of epimorphic regeneration (K.A. Wright pers. comm., 1988). Although Filipjev (1921) stated that regeneration is "completely absent" in nematodes, other reports by Micoletzky and Kreis (1930) and Allgen (1959) present another picture which seemingly contradicts such a blanket generalization. Last year it was reported that a gastrotrich (undescribed species of Turbanella) of the genera Macrodasyidae, a primitive sister group of the Nematoda, restored epidermis with complete wound closure following transection; restructuring of Y organ and intestine; and caudal adhesive tubes forming anew (Manylov, 1995). This is the first report of regeneration in this group. In another recent paper from the former Soviet Union, Voronov and Panchin (1995a) report that a nematode, of the order Enoplida (E.brevis), has a process of gastrulation which contradicts the patterns of cleavage formerly ascribed to the Enoplida (Malakhov,1994). They observed that up to the sixteenth cell stage cleavage is usually (though this can vary) equal and synchronous, producing blastomeres of equal appearance; elsewhere they observe that the primordia which gives rise to all the endoderm can be derived from either the anterior or posterior at the two-cell stage (Voronov and Panchin,1995b). This variability, they offer, makes the Enoplida different from other nematodes studied. Malakhov believes that this variability "can even engender the idea that the cleavage among members of marine Enoplida is indeterminate, but this is not so." (p.166). However, the cleavage of the Enoplida may be indeterminate enough to allow for the regenerative phenomena recently witnessed in a gastrotrich. In sum, Enoplid cleavage patterns would appear to be similar to the more primitive patterns seen in the Macrodasyidae, which is consistent with the notion that equal cleavage is ancestral and determination of early blastomere fate derived (Baguna and Boyer,1990). Also, it should be remembered that in addition to the single species reported by Micoletzky and Kreis, all nine of the species which Allgen found evidence of regeneration were marine Enoplids. Allgen,C.A.(1959)Free living marine nematodes. Further Zool. Results Swed. Antarct. Exp. 1901-03 vol.5 no.2: 1-293. Baguna,J.,B.C.Boyer(1990)Descriptive and experimental embryology of the Turbellaria: Present knowledge, open questions and future trends. In Marthy, H.(ed), Experimental Embryology in Aquatic Plants and Animals. NATO ASI 195; 95-128. Filipjev,I.N.(1921)Free living nematodes in the vicinity of Sevastapol. (in Russian), Akad. Nauk SSSR. Trudy osob. zool. lab. ser 2 41: 351-614. Malakhov,V.V.(1994)Nematodes: Structure, Development, Classification and Phylogeny. Smithsonian Inst. Press. Manylov,O.G.(1995)Regeneration in Gastrotricha - I. Light microscopical observations on the regeneration in Turbanella sp. . Acta Zool. 76:1-6. Micoletzky,H.,H.A.Kreis(1930)Freilbende marine Nematoden von den sunda-Inseln. Dansk natur. Foren. Vid. medd. Bd 87: 243-339. Poinar,G.O.(1992)Immune responses and wound repair. In Diseases of Nematodes. vol 1, p.133-40, CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida. Voronov,D.A.,Y.V.Panchin(1995a)The early-stage of the cleavage in the free-living marine nematode Enoplus brevis (Enoplida, Enoplidae) in the normal and experimental conditions. Zool. Zhurn. 74(6): 31-38. Voronov,D.A.,Y.V.Panchin(1995b)Gastrulation in the free-living marine nematode Enoplus brevis and the localization of endodermal material at the stage of 2 blastomeres in the nematodes of the order Enoplida. Zool. Zhurn. 74(10): 10-18.