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Curr Opin Genet Dev,
1999]
Beginning with the first mitotic division in a Caenorhabditis elegans embryo, asymmetric cleavages establish much of the body plan. Although they share a common axis of polarity, at least three kinds of asymmetric cell division occur: two are under intrinsic control, while a third requires an inductive signal and may operate repeatedly throughout development.
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Methods Cell Biol,
1995]
In this chapter we review methods that have been developed for working with the amoeboid sperm of nematodes. Although the sperm from a number of species have been examined, we confine our discussion to the free-living Caenorhabditis elegans and the pig parasite Ascaris suum. Each of these experimental systems offers the investigator certain strengths and weaknesses, and the type of contemplated experiment determines which is most suitable. Ascaris sperm are more easily obtainable in large quantity and are, therefore, more suited for biochemical studies. Furthermore, the Ascaris sperm is much larger than its C. elegans counterpart, allowing easier light microscopic analyses. The superb genetics and ease in obtaining DNA clones containing desired gene sequences make C. elegans the system of choice for genetic and molecular biological studies. Much evidence indicates that the sperm of these two systems share important similarities, and data obtained in one are frequently applicable to the other. Consequently, although the rest of this volume concerns principally C. elegans, we feel this chapter requires discussion of both C. elegans and Ascaris sperm because much of understanding of amoeboid sperm cell biology has, in fact, been obtained from Ascaris.
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Nature Reviews Immunology,
2002]
Much of what we know about innate immunity comes from studies in Drosophila. Two papers now show that Caenorhabditis elegans, another genetically tractable organism, might be a useful additional model for studying innate immunity. The results show that C. elegans has an inducible response to pathogen infection and that this response shares many features with innate immunity in other organisms.
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Trends in Genetics,
1987]
Tc1 is a 1.6 kbp DNA sequence present in about 30 copies in some strains of C. elegans and 300 or more copies in other strains. Tc1 elements excise much more frequently in somatic cells than in the germ line. Germ-line transposition of Tc1 has been detected and is under genetic control. Tc1 has become very useful as a tool for cloning C. elegans genes identified soley by mutation.
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Commun Integr Biol,
2013]
Animals thrive in environments where food resources are abundant. While this correlation between population growth and food abundance is well established, much less is known about the influence of diet quality on physiological and developmental programs that support animal reproduction. Here we discuss dietary impact on fertility, and highlight a recent report on the activity of a nuclear receptor that protects against dietary metabolites to maintain germline stem cell integrity and reproduction.
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Review of Biological Research in Aging,
1990]
The last few years have marked a transition for aging research in Caenorhabditis elegans. Several new lines of work have appeared, most notable of which is the derivation of long-lived strains obtained both from naturally occurring variation and by mutation. The loss of several workers in the field due to retirement or movement to other areas of research as well as the increasingly competitive nature of funding for fundamental, nonclinical research in aging had led to the loss of several labs that in the past have been among the most productive in the field. Other areas of research with C. elegans have continued to advance, and the physical map of the nematode is more than 95% complete. The background material for studying C. elegans has also become much more accessible as a result of the publication of a book detailing much of the nonaging background material for C. elegans [Wood, 1988].
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Biochim Biophys Acta,
2009]
Phospholipase D (PLD) catalyses the hydrolysis of phosphatidylcholine to generate phosphatidic acid and choline. Historically, much PLD work has been conducted in mammalian settings although genes encoding enzymes of this family have been identified in all eukaryotic organisms. Recently, important insights on PLD function are emerging from work in yeast, but much less is known about PLD in other organisms. In this review we will summarize what is known about phospholipase D in several model organisms, including C. elegans, D. discoideum, D. rerio and D. melanogaster. In the cases where knockouts are available (C. elegans, Dictyostelium and Drosophila) the PLD gene(s) appear not to be essential for viability, but several studies are beginning to identify pathways where this activity has a role. Given that the proteins in model organisms are very similar to their mammalian counterparts, we expect that future studies in model organisms will complement and extend ongoing work in mammalian settings. At the end of this review we will also provide a short update on phosphatidic acid targets, a topic last reviewed in 2006.
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Biochim Biophys Acta,
2011]
Although mitochondria are essential organelles for long-term survival of eukaryotic cells, recent discoveries in biochemistry and genetics have advanced our understanding of the requirements for mitochondria in cell death. Much of what we understand about cell death is based on the identification of conserved cell death genes in Drosophila melanogaster and Caenorhabditis elegans. However, the role of mitochondria in cell death in these models has been much less clear. Considering the active role that mitochondria play in apoptosis in mammalian cells, the mitochondrial contribution to cell death in non-mammalian systems has been an area of active investigation. In this article, we review the current research on this topic in three non-mammalian models, C. elegans, Drosophila, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In addition, we discuss how non-mammalian models have provided important insight into the mechanisms of human disease as they relate to the mitochondrial pathway of cell death. The unique perspective derived from each of these model systems provides a more complete understanding of mitochondria in programmed cell death. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled Mitochondria: the deadly organelle.
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Nature Reviews Genetics,
2003]
Despite the bewildering number of cell types and patterns found in the animal kingdom, only a few signalling pathways are required to generate them. Most cell-cell interactions during embryonic development involve the Hedgehog, Wnt, transforming growth factor-beta, receptor tyrosine kinase, Notch, JAK/STAT and nuclear hormone pathways. Looking at how these pathways evolved might provide insights into how a few signalling pathways can generate so much cellular and morphological diversity during the development of individual organisms and the evolution of animal body
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Dev Biol,
2019]
The shape of an individual neuron is linked to its function with axons sending signals to other cells and dendrites receiving them. Although much is known of the mechanisms for axonal outgrowth, the striking complexity of dendritic architecture has hindered efforts to uncover pathways that direct dendritic branching. Here we review the results of an experimental strategy that exploits the power of genetic analysis and live cell imaging of the PVD sensory neuron in C. elegans to reveal key molecular drivers of dendrite morphogenesis.