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Curr Biol,
2000]
A new animal model for studying muscular dystrophy, a mutant form of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, brings the power of worm genetics to bear on the search for a cure for this disease; work on this worm has already led to the identification of a novel component that can suppress the mutant phenotype.
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J Microsc,
2013]
Correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM) has recently gained increasing attention, because it enables the acquisition of dynamic as well as ultrastructural information about subcellular processes. It is the power of combining the two imaging modalities that gives additional information as compared to using the imaging techniques separately. Here, we briefly summarize two CLEM approaches for the analysis of cells in mitosis and cytokinesis.
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Curr Opin Cell Biol,
1992]
Reproducible cell-cell interactions contribute to the invariance of Caenorhabditis elegans development and allow high resolution study of molecular mechanisms of intercellular signaling. A number of new cell interactions have been discovered in the past year. The power of nematode molecular genetics has been increased through several technical advances and the genome project, and these new approaches are now being successfully applied both to familiar and new signaling mechanisms.
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Neuron,
2002]
Cyclic GMP-dependent protein kinase (PKG) has been implicated in the regulation of diverse aspects of vertebrate and insect behavior, yet the mechanisms underlying these effects are poorly understood. In this issue of Neuron, Fujiwara et al. and L'Etoile et al. address the neural basis for PKG function in C. elegans and demonstrate the power of behavioral genetic analysis in simple systems in the elucidation of neuronal signaling mechanisms in vivo.
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Aging (Milano),
1993]
A central theme underlies this review: "Genetics offers an important tool for identifying key molecular events that are involved in specifying biological functions." This approach has been used repeatedly to understand such diverse biological phenomena as oncogenesis, development, and the cell cycle, but has only recently been applied to the analysis of organismic aging and senescence. The power of the genetic approach lies in the ability to integrate phenomena that are displayed at multiple observational levels (i.e., from the molecular to the whole organism), and the power to reveal causal factors that are not dependent upon the prejudice of the investigator. I discuss several areas where genetics has been fruitfully applied to the study of the aging processes: human genes identified by "segmental progeroid" mutations; neurological diseases of the elderly; the limited proliferative life span of human somatic cells in tissue culture; studies on the life span of the mouse; and genetic analysis of life span in shorter-lived metazoans (Drosophila melanogaster and Caenorhabditis elegans), and the yeast Saccaromyces cerevisiae.
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Exp Gerontol,
1997]
Genetics is an important tool for identifying key molecular events that are involved in specifying biological functions. Genetic approaches have been used repeatedly to understand diverse biological phenomena: oncogenesis, development, and the cell cycle, but have only recently been applied to the analysis of organismic aging and senescence. The power of the genetic approach stems from two facts. First, genetic analyses allow the integration of phenomena that are analyzed at many levels of observation from the molecule to the intact organism, and second, genetics has the real power to reveal causality by factors that are not dependent upon the prejudice of the investigator. I discuss several areas where genetics has been fruitfully applied to the study of the aging processes: human genes identified by "segmental progeroid" mutations, neurological diseases of the elderly, the limited proliferative life span of human somatic cells in tissue culture, studies on the life span of the mouse, and genetic analysis of life span in shorter lived metazoans (Drosophila melanogaster and Caenorhabditis elegans), and the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
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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.
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Nature Reviews Genetics,
2002]
Imagine being able to knock out your favourite gene with only a day's work. Not just in one model system, but in virtually any organism: plants, flies, mice or cultured cells. This sort of experimental dream might one day become reality as we learn to harness the power of RNA interference, the process by which double-stranded RNA induces the silencing of homologous endogenous genes. How this phenomenon works is slowly becoming clear, and might help us to develop an effortless tool to probe gene function in cells and animals.
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Trends Cell Biol,
2010]
A wealth of evidence underscores the tight link between oxidative stress, neurodegeneration and aging. When the level of excess reactive oxygen species (ROS) increases in the cell, a phenomenon characteristic of aging, DNA is damaged, proteins are oxidized, lipids are degraded and more ROS are produced, all culminating in significant cell injury. Recently we showed that in the nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans, oxidation of K(+) channels by ROS is a major mechanism underlying the loss of neuronal function. The C. elegans results support an argument that K(+) channels controlling neuronal excitability and survival might provide a common, functionally important substrate for ROS in aging mammals. Here we discuss the implications that oxidation of K(+) channels by ROS might have for the mammalian brain during normal aging, as well as in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. We argue that oxidation of K(+) channels by ROS is a common theme in the aging brain and suggest directions for future experimentation.
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Physiology (Bethesda),
2009]
Recent work shows that transport-independent as well as transport-dependent functions of ion transporters, and in particular the Na-K-ATPase, are required for formation and maintenance of several intercellular junctions. Furthermore, these junctional and other nonjunctional functions of ion transporters contribute to development of epithelial tubes. Here, we consider what has been learned about the roles of ion pumps in formation of junctions and epithelial tubes in mammals, zebrafish, Drosophila, and C. elegans. We propose that asymmetric association of the Na-K-ATPase with cell junctions early in metazoan evolution enabled vectorial transcellular ion transport and control of intraorganismal environment. Ion transport-independent functions of the Na-K-ATPase arose as junctional complexes evolved.