Antebi A (2005) Cell Metab "The prepared mind of the worm."

Antebi A

[Cell Metab, 2005]

In C. elegans, dauer pheromone is an indicator of population density and influences pathways that regulate metabolism, development, and aging. In a recent publication in Nature, Paik and coworkers (Jeong et al., 2005) show the purified substance to be a pyran ring conjugated to heptanoic acid, setting the stage for dissecting downstream signaling pathways.

Goutte C (2002) Dev Cell "Genetics leads the way to the accomplices of presenilins."

Goutte C

[Dev Cell, 2002]

Presenilins mediate they-secretase cleavage of Notch transmembrane receptors as well as the transmembrane P-amyloid precursor protein (PAPP), but they are not thought to accomplish this alone. Recent genetic screens in C. elegans, presented in this issue of Developmental Cell, identify two genes that are essential to gamma-secretase activity and may interact with presenilins.

Motegi F et al. (2007) J Cell Biol "Revisiting the role of microtubules in C. elegans polarity."

Motegi F, Seydoux G

[J Cell Biol, 2007]

Cells must break symmetry to acquire polarity. Microtubules have been implicated in the induction of asymmetry in several cell types, but their role in the Caenorhabditis elegans zygote, a classic polarity model, has remained uncertain. One study (see Tsai and Ahringer on p. 397 of this issue) brings new light to this problem by demonstrating that severe loss of microtubules impairs polarity onset in C. elegans.