Joanne M Staines et al. (2002) European Worm Meeting "C. elegans whole genome microarray: An update"

Wendy L Bridge, Jeena A Rajan, Patricia E Kuwabara, Joanne M Staines, Alan Coulson

[European Worm Meeting, 2002]

We have produced a C. elegans microarray consisting of exon-rich genomic fragments, corresponding to approximately 17,500 genes. These products have been spotted onto poly-L- lysine coated slides. Each microarray contains various controls to assess 1) the uniformity of hybridisation 2) the quality of the cDNA and 3) the specificity of signal detection. Currently we are investigating the performance of these controls and the reproducibility of our arrays.

Delia M O'Rourke et al. (2003) International Worm Meeting "Analysis of gene expression changes in C. elegans following infection with Microbacterium nematophilum"

Delia M O'Rourke, Joanne Staines, Patricia Kuwabara, Jonathan Hodgkin

[International Worm Meeting, 2003]

Microbacterium nematophilum is a novel bacterial pathogen of C. elegans (Hodgkin et al.,2000). This pathogen adheres to the rectum and post-anal region of the worm causing swelling of the underlying tissues, severe constipation and slow growth rates. Affected worms are described as having a Dar (Deformed Anal Region) phenotype.To define the molecular events involved in this host: pathogen interaction we have conducted a genome wide analysis of gene expression changes that occur during an infection. We infected a synchronised population of larval C. elegans in liquid culture before harvesting the worms and extracting RNA at two time points. Our control sample was an identical experiment using an avirulent mutant of the pathogen isolated by T. Akimkina and S. Curnock.We will present data from this microarray experiment, illustrating which genes are significantly induced or repressed. We will also examine the expression of genes previously shown to be important in the worm's response to infection by this and other pathogens.Hodgkin, J., Kuwabara, P. E. and Corneliussen, B. Current Biology 2000 10 ;1615-1618