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J Neurogenet
]
During the 1961-1971 decade, Sydney Brenner made several significant contributions to molecular biology-showing that the genetic code is a triplet code; discovery of messenger RNA; colinearity of gene and protein; decoding of chain terminating codons; and then an important transition: the development of the nematode <i>Caenorhabditis elegans</i> into the model eucaryote genetic system that has permeated the whole of recent biology.
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J Neurogenet
]
A slide taped to a window at the Woods Hole Marine Biology Laboratory was my first introduction to the touch receptor neurons of the nematode <i>Caenorhabditis elegans</i>. Studying these cells as a postdoc with Sydney Brenner gave me a chance to work with John Sulston on a fascinating set of neurons. I would never have guessed then that 43 years later I would still be excited about learning their secrets.
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Lancet,
2002]
The overwhelming complexity of higher organisms can make it hard to know where to begin to understand them. The three scientists who share this year's Nobel prize for physiology or medicine, Sydney Brenner (Salk Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA), John Sulston (Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, UK), and Robert Horvitz (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, MA, USA), all chose to study a far simpler organisms - the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans. Although multicellular, this organism reproduces rapidly and is transparent, so that each developmental stage can be seen clearly without the need for dissection.
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Science,
1998]
The completion of the Caenorhabditis elegans genome sequence represents a major milestone in a journey initiated by Sydney Brenner some 30 years ago. The goal then as now was to discover how genetic information specifies the development, anatomy, and behavior of a simple animal. Bringing the full potential of the genome sequence to bear on this goal will require facile new reverse genetic tools for converting sequence information into functional information. Here, we briefly describe progress toward understanding and using one such tool termed RNA interference" or "RNAi".
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Methods Mol Biol,
2006]
The establishment of Caenorhabditis elegans as a "model organism" began with the efforts of Sydney Brenner in the early 1960s. Brenner''s focus was to find a suitable animal model in which the tools of genetic analysis could be used to define molecular mechanisms of development and nervous system function. C. elegans provides numerous experimental advantages for such studies. These advantages include a short life cycle, production of large numbers of offspring, easy and inexpensive laboratory culture, forward and reverse genetic tractability, and a relatively simple anatomy. This chapter will provide a brief overview of C. elegans biology.
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Mech Ageing Dev,
2023]
Since its introduction by Sydney Brenner, Caenorhabditis elegans has become a widely studied organism. Given its highly significant properties, including transparency, short lifespan, self-fertilization, high reproductive yield and ease in manipulation and genetic modifications, the nematode has contributed to the elucidation of several fundamental aspects of biology, such as development and ageing. Moreover, it has been extensively used as a platform for the modelling of ageing-associated human disorders, especially those related to neurodegeneration. The use of C. elegans for such purposes requires, and at the same time promotes the investigation of its normal ageing process. In this review we aim to summarize the major organismal alterations during normal worm ageing, in terms of morphology and functionality.
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Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A,
2013]
The biology of Sydney Brenner's eponymous species of nematode, Caenorhabditis brenneri, is little known to science, despite its famous sibling Caenorhabditis elegans. Here we demonstrate that C. brenneri harbors the most molecular diversity of any eukaryote, with its 14.1% of polymorphic synonymous sites between individuals being 150-fold greater than humans and most comparable to hyperdiverse bacteria. This diversity is not an artifact of cryptic species divergence but reflects an enormous pan-tropical population, confirmed by fully viable genetic crosses between continents, extensive intralocus recombination, selection on codon use, and only weak geographic genetic structure. These findings in an animal galvanize tests of theory about the evolution of complexity in genomes and phenotypes and enable molecular population genetics methods to finely resolve uncharacterized functional noncoding elements.
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J Neurogenet,
2020]
This review article highlights our efforts to decode the role of the nervous system in regulating intestinal lipid metabolism in <i>Caenorhabditis elegans</i>. Capitalizing on the prescient and pioneering work of Sydney Brenner and John Sulston in establishing <i>C. elegans</i> as an immensely valuable model system, we have uncovered critical roles for oxygen sensing, population density sensing and food sensing in orchestrating the balance between storing lipids and utilizing them for energy in the intestine, the major organ for lipid metabolism in this model system. Our long-term goal is to reveal the integrative mechanisms and regulatory logic that underlies the complex relationship between genes, environment and internal state in the regulation of energy and whole-body physiology.
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J Neurogenet,
2020]
From Sydney Brenner's backyard to hundreds of labs across the globe, inspiring six Nobel Prize winners along the way, <i>Caenorhabditis elegans</i> research has come far in the past half century. The journey is not over. The virtues of <i>C. elegans</i> research are numerous and have been recounted extensively. Here, we focus on the remarkable progress made in sensory neurobiology research in <i>C. elegans</i>. This nematode continues to amaze researchers as we are still adding new discoveries to the already rich repertoire of sensory capabilities of this deceptively simple animal. Worms possess the sense of taste, smell, touch, light, temperature and proprioception, each of which is being studied in genetic, molecular, cellular and systems-level detail. This impressive organism can even detect less commonly recognized sensory cues such as magnetic fields and humidity.
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J Neurogenet,
2020]
The nervous system is composed of a high diversity of neuronal types. How this diversity is generated during development is a key question in neurobiology. Addressing this question is one of the reasons that led Sydney Brenner to develop the nematode <i>C. elegans</i> as a model organism. While there was initially a debate on whether the neuronal specification follows a 'European' model (determined by ancestry) or an 'American' model (determined by intercellular communication), several decades of research have established that the truth lies somewhere in between. Neurons are specified by the combination of transcription factors inherited from the ancestor cells and signaling between neighboring cells (especially Wnt and Notch signaling). This converges to the activation in newly generated postmitotic neurons of a specific set of terminal selector transcription factors that initiate and maintain the differentiation of the neuron. In this review, we also discuss the evolution of these specification mechanisms in other nematodes and beyond.