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Bioessays,
2015]
Nowadays, in the Internet databases era, certain knowledge is being progressively lost. This knowledge, which we feel is essential and should be acquired through education, is the understanding of how the pioneer researchers faced major questions in their field and made their discoveries.
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Gradolewski D, Krawczuk M, Tojza P, Koncicki A, Ambroziak D, Redlarski G, Lewczuk B, Jakubiuk K, Jaworski J, Skarbek L, Piechocki J, Zak A
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Biomed Res Int,
2015]
Current technologies have become a source of omnipresent electromagnetic pollution from generated electromagnetic fields and resulting electromagnetic radiation. In many cases this pollution is much stronger than any natural sources of electromagnetic fields or radiation. The harm caused by this pollution is still open to question since there is no clear and definitive evidence of its negative influence on humans. This is despite the fact that extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields were classified as potentially carcinogenic. For these reasons, in recent decades a significant growth can be observed in scientific research in order to understand the influence of electromagnetic radiation on living organisms. However, for this type of research the appropriate selection of relevant model organisms is of great importance. It should be noted here that the great majority of scientific research papers published in this field concerned various tests performed on mammals, practically neglecting lower organisms. In that context the objective of this paper is to systematise our knowledge in this area, in which the influence of electromagnetic radiation on lower organisms was investigated, including bacteria, E. coli and B. subtilis, nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans, land snail, Helix pomatia, common fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, and clawed frog, Xenopus laevis.
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Science,
2002]
The nematode worm known as Caenorhabditis elegans is not much to look at. Just a millimeter long and transparent to boot, it is almost invisible to the naked eye. But in biological research the tiny worm looms large, providing a model system for studying everything from embryonic development to aging. Now, three researchers who pioneered the use of C. elegans as a model organism have won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
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Nat Rev Genet,
2001]
The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is well known to practising biologists as a model organism. Early work with C. elegans is best understood as part of a descriptive tradition in biological practice. Although the resources that have been generated by the C. elegans community have been revolutionary, they were produced by traditional methods and approaches. Here, I review the choice and use of the worm as an experimental organism for genetics and neurobiology that began in the 1960s.
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Trends Genet,
1999]
The genome sequence of the free-living nematode Caenorhabiditis elegans is nearly complete, with resolution of the final difficult regions expected over the next few months. This will represent the first genome of a multicellular organism to be sequenced to completion. The genome is approximately 97 Mb in total, and encodes more than 19 099 proteins, considerably more than expected before sequencing began. The sequencing project - a collaboration between the Genome Sequencing Center in St Louis and the Sanger Centre in Hinxton - has lasted eight years, with the majority of the sequence generated in the past four years. Analysis of the genome sequence is just beginning and represents an effort that will undoubtedly last more than another decade. However, some interesting findings are already apparent, indicating that the scope of the project, the approach taken, and the usefulness of having the genetic blueprint for this small organism have been well worth the effort.
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Genetics,
2014]
THE Genetics Society of America's Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal is awarded to an individual GSA member for lifetime achievement in the field of genetics. The 2014 recipient is Frederick Ausubel, whose 40-year career has centered on host-microbe interactions and host innate immunity. He is widely recognized as a key scientist responsible for establishing the modern postrecombinant DNA field of host-microbe interactions using simple nonvertebrate hosts. He has used genetic approaches to conduct pioneering work that spawned six related areas of research: the evolution and regulation of Rhizobium genes involved in symbiotic nitrogen fixation; the regulation of Rhizobium genes by two-component regulatory systems involving histidine kinases; the establishment of Arabidopsis thaliana as a worldwide model system; the identification of a large family of plant disease resistance genes; the identification of so-called multi-host bacterial pathogens; and the demonstration that Caenorhabditis elegans has an evolutionarily conserved innate immune system that shares features of both plant and mammalian immunity.
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[
Toxicon,
2001]
Diphtheria toxin is one of the most extensively studied and well understood bacterial toxins. Ever since its discovery in the late 1800's this toxin has occupied a central focus in the field of toxinology. In this review, I present a chronology of major discoveries that led to our current understanding of the structure and activity of diphtheria toxin.
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Genetics,
1996]
I fell in love with Caenorhabditis elegans in the summer of '72. Our relationship was cemented four years later, 20 years ago now, by the publication of a paper in Genetics on C. elegans chromosome rearrangements (Herman et al. 1976). My pleasant assignment here is to describe the beginning of that work and to relate it to current worm cytogenetics and chromosome mechanics.
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Clin Med,
2003]
The recent award of a Nobel Prize to Sydney Brenner crowns an astonishingly distinguished scientific career. He must have come very close to winning it several times in the past. A colleague described him as 'a visionary who sees further into the future than anyone'. This is borne out by his decision - made 40 years ago - to study a one-millimetre long worm in detail to define the, biochemical and genetic control of its development and differentiation. The impact of these studies has been so profound, with a significant bearing on human physiology and disease, that over 400 laboratories worldwide have now adopted the worm as a research tool. In this article, a brief outline is given of his work on the worm and of some of the highlights of his brilliant career.
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[
Science,
1995]
Programmed cell death (PCD), or apoptosis, is a conserved terminal differentiation program that multicellular organisms have evolved to get rid of cells that are not needed, that are in the way, or that are potentially dangerous. PCD can be equated with cell suicide in the sense that the dying cell plays an active role in promoting its own demise and removal from the organism.