Mansfield, Richard et al. (2013) International Worm Meeting "Characterizing the hsf-1-Independent Behavioral Response to Heat Shock."

Van Buskirk, Cheryl, Mansfield, Richard

[International Worm Meeting, 2013]

Inducible gene expression is a valuable tool in determining gene function, and the heat-shock inducible gene expression system is used extensively in studies of C. elegans development and behavior. However, we and others1 have noted that heat itself can affect behavior, highlighting the importance of heat-shocked controls in behavioral studies. To guide the evaluation of such studies we wished to characterize the behavioral effects of heat. Here we show that young adult animals subjected to heat shock display suppressed pharyngeal pumping and locomotion that persists for up to an hour. These effects are seen immediately after heat shock and are, not surprisingly, hsf-1-independent. Unexpectedly, however, we find that this behavioral suppression is dependent on UNC-13, UNC-31, and PKC-1, known regulators of neuropeptide release, indicating that it is not due to cell-autonomous effects of protein misfolding. Additionally the effect is dependent on AFD thermosensory neurons, but not their postsynaptic AIY partners. This suggests that AFD participates in a previously undescribed neuroendocrine pathway that inhibits active behavior in response to heat. As well as the characterization of recovery quiescence, we have also analyzed the behavior of animals during heat shock. Using a heated microscope stage, we have found that young adult animals cease feeding at approximately 32 deg C, consistent with previously reported results1, and we have found this effect to be AFD-independent, consistent with a cell-autonomous effect of heat on pharyngeal pumping. Animals that are immediately removed from heat resume feeding within 1-2 minutes. Thus in addition to previously described thermotaxis, there appears to be two additional behavioral responses to heat. First, a transient cessation of pharyngeal muscle contraction in direct response to heat stress, which may be due to cell-autonomous effects of heat on protein activity. And second, and a prolonged suppression of feeding and locomotion that is mediated by neuroendocrine signaling. We speculate that this may function to conserve resources for metabolic changes associated with the adaptive transcriptional response to heat. 1. Jones D, Candido EP. 1999. J Exp Zool 24:147-157.

Townsend SR et al. (1994) Worm Breeder's Gazette "C. elegans Molecular Genetics and Long PCR."

Finelli AL, Savage C, Xie T, Padgett RW, Townsend SR

[Worm Breeder's Gazette, 1994]

C. elegans Molecular Genetics and Long PCR Scott R. Townsend, Cathy Savage, Alyce L. Finelli, Ting Xie, and Richard W. Padgett, Waksman Institute and Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08855

Martinelli SD et al. (1995) International C. elegans Meeting "ACEDB"

Durbin RM, Martinelli SD

[International C. elegans Meeting, 1995]

We hope to provide a demonstration of the current state of the ACeDB worm database on Unix workstations, and if possible Apple Macintosh, throughout the poster sessions. This will be based on the new version 4 release of the acedb software (Jean Thierry-Mieg, Richard Durbin and numerous others), which contains many new features for greater efficiency, more flexible printing, and display of new features.

(2024) Development "The people behind the papers - Thomas Mullan and Richard Poole."

[Development, 2024]

Asymmetric cell divisions can produce daughter cells of different sizes, but it is unclear whether unequal cell cleavage is important for cell fate decisions. A new paper in Development explores the role of unequal cleavages in Caenorhabditis elegans embryos. To learn more about the story behind the paper, we caught up with first author Thomas Mullan and corresponding author Richard Poole, Associate Professor of Developmental Biology at University College London, UK.

Soto, Rony et al. (2015) International Worm Meeting "Disruption of proteostasis induces sleep following heat shock."

Soto, Rony, Hill, Andrew, Van Buskirk, Cheryl, Sarian, Adrig, Mansfield, Richard

[International Worm Meeting, 2015]

Recent work from our lab has shown that Caenorhabditis elegans sleeps after exposure to stressful stimuli, including heat shock. We hypothesize that disruption of proteostasis is the underlying trigger of this behavioral quiescence. Therefore, we expect animals with constitutive chaperone activity to require less sleep after heat shock compared to wild type. To test our hypothesis, we examined the behavioral responses of daf-21 mutants after heat shock. DAF-21/HSP90 is a negative regulator of the heat shock response, and these mutants are known to display heightened chaperone activity. We find that these mutants show a reduced sleep response relative to wild type following heat shock. This result supports our hypothesis that a core function of sleep may be related to mitigating disruptions of proteostasis. We aim to further test our model by examining the effects of sleep on proteostasis, by examining metastable protein function in wild type and sleep-defective mutants. Our results on these temperature sensitive mutants will be presented.

Herman RK et al. (1997) Worm Breeder's Gazette "STATUS OF THE CAENORHABDITIS GENETICS CENTER (CGC)"

Herman RK, Stiernagle TL

[Worm Breeder's Gazette, 1997]

May 31, 1997 will mark the end of our current five-year contract with the NIH National Center for Research Resources, which supports the activities of the CGC. The activities in St. Paul have involved primarily the acquisition, maintenance and distribution of stocks and information about stocks, acquisition and maintenance of the C. elegans bibliography, and publication and distribution of The Worm Breeder's Gazette (WBG) and WBG Subscriber Directory. Genetic nomenclature and the genetic map have been managed for the period 1992-1997 by Jonathan Hodgkin (CGC Map Curator) on a subcontract. Currently, the subcontract provides half of Sylvia Martinelli's salary, plus travel and minor expenses. Additional support from within the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology and the Sanger Centre has been used to fund other essential resources such as computer equipment, as well as Jonathan's and Richard Durbin's time. Richard has been involved in mapkeeping through his work on ACeDB. We are pleased that Jonathan, Richard and Sylvia agreed to continue their work for another five years. We have submitted an application for a new five year contract that would include a subcontract for nomenclature and mapkeeping on essentially the same terms as before. A description of the nomenclature and mapkeeping activities is given in the following abstract. We are grateful to Leon Avery for setting up our CGC gopher server and also for arranging for the electronic submission of WBG abstracts (as well as abstracts for various C. elegans meetings). His C. elegans WWW server has become an essential resource for the worm community. We were therefore pleased to include Leon (only 5% effort) in a second subcontract as part of our new CGC application. We welcome comments and suggestions about any of the CGC activities.

Kelley S (2000) Brief Bioinform "Getting started with Acedb."

Kelley S

[Brief Bioinform, 2000]

Acedb is one of the more venerable pieces of Genomics software. Acedb was originally created in 1992 by Richard Durbin and Jean Thierry-Mieg to manage the data from the Caenorhabditis elegans mapping project and subsequently the C. elegans sequencing project. From beginnings as a C. elegans-specific tool, it has been continuously developed into a flexible suite of data management, display and scripting tools providing facilities for managing and annotation mapping information and DNA and peptide sequences.This paper gives a basic overview of the Acedb suite, and step-by-step guidance on how to download and install Acedb. It is intended to take an Acedb novice to stage where they can begin to experiment and explore the facilities that are available.

Sommer RJ (2008) Bioessays "Homology and the hierarchy of biological systems."

Sommer RJ

[Bioessays, 2008]

Homology is the similarity between organisms due to common ancestry. Introduced by Richard Owen in 1843 in a paper entitled "Lectures on comparative anatomy and physiology of the invertebrate animals", the concept of homology predates Darwin's "Origin of Species" and has been very influential throughout the history of evolutionary biology. Although homology is the central concept of all comparative biology and provides a logical basis for it, the definition of the term and the criteria of its application remain controversial. Here, I will discuss homology in the context of the hierarchy of biological organization. I will provide insights gained from an exemplary case study in evolutionary developmental biology that indicates the uncoupling of homology at different levels of biological organization. I argue that continuity and hierarchy are separate but equally important issues of homology.

Consortium Wormbase et al. (2000) West Coast Worm Meeting "From ACeDB to a more complete and usable database"

Consortium Wormbase, Foltz NL, Schwarz EM, Sternberg PW

[West Coast Worm Meeting, 2000]

We briefly describe the current status and plans for WormBase, initially an extension of the existing ACeDB database with a new user interface. The WormBase consortium includes the team that developed ACeDB (Richard Durbin and colleagues at the Sanger Centre; Jean Thierry-Mieg and colleagues at Montpellier); Lincoln Stein and colleagues at Cold Spring Harbor, who developed the current web interface for WormBase; and John Spieth and colleagues at the Genome Sequencing Center at Washington University, who along with the Sanger Centre team, continue to annotate the genomic sequence. The Caltech group will curate new data including cell function in development, behavior and physiology, gene expression at a cellular level, and gene interactions. Data will be extracted from the literature, as well as by community submission. We look forward to providing the C. elegans and broader research community easy access to vast quantities of high quality data on C. elegans. Also, we welcome your suggestions and criticism at any time. WormBase can be accessed at www.wormbase.org.

Consortium Wormbase (2000) Worm Breeder's Gazette "Update on the C. elegans database WormBase"

Consortium Wormbase

[Worm Breeder's Gazette, 2000]

WormBase (www.wormbase.org) is an international consortium of biologists and computer scientists dedicated to providing the research community with accurate, current, accessible information concerning the genetics, genomics and biology of C. elegans and some related nematodes. WormBase builds upon the existing ACeDB database of the C. elegans genome by providing curation from the literature, an expanded range of content and a user friendly web interface. The team that developed and maintained ACeDB (Richard Durbin, Jean Thierry-Mieg) remains an important part of WormBase. Lincoln Stein and colleagues at Cold Spring Harbor are leading the effort to develop the user interface, including visualization tools for the genome and genetic map. Teams at Sanger Centre (led by Richard Durbin) and the Genome Sequencing Center at Washington University, St. Louis (led by John Spieth) continue to curate the genomic sequence. Jean and Danielle Thierry-Mieg at NCBI spearhead importation of large-scale data sets from other projects. Paul Sternberg and colleagues at Caltech will curate new data including cell function in development, behavior and physiology, gene expression at a cellular level; and gene interactions. Paul Sternberg assumes overall responsibility for WormBase, and is delighted to hear feedback of any sort. WormBase has recently received major funding from the National Human Genome Research Institute at the US National Institutes of Health, and also receives support from the National Library of Medicine/NCBI and the British Medical Research Council. WormBase is an expansion of existing efforts, and as such continues to need you help and feedback. Even with the increased scope and funding, all past contributors to ACeDB remain involved. The Caenorhabditis Genetics Center (Jonathan Hodgkin and Sylvia Martinelli) collaborate with WormBase to curate the genetic map and related topics. Ian Hope and colleagues continue to supply expression data to WormBase. Leon Avery will continue his superb website and serves as one advisor to WormBase. While the major means of access to WormBase is via the world wide web, downloadable versions of WormBase as well as the acedb software engine will continue to be available.