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[
Nature,
1992]
Supporters of large DNA sequencing projects will take heart (and find much to learn) from the report by J. Sulston and colleagues that appears on page 37 of this issue. Sulston et al. describe the first results of the Caenorhabditis elegans genome sequencing project, and have come up with not only hitherto unknown genes but also with fresh and biologically relevant information.
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[
Nature,
1994]
On page 32 of this issue, a joint team from the Genome Sequencing Center (St. Louis, USA) and the newly founded Sanger Centre (Hinxton Hall, Cambridge, UK) report a contiguous sequence of over two megabases from chromosome III of the nematode worm, Caenorhabditis elegans. This is the longest contiguous DNA sequence yet determined, and it prompts rumination on how far we have come in the sequencing enterprise, and on how far - and where - we have
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[
Science,
1998]
The near completion of the sequence of the C. elegans genome should provide researchers with a gold mine of information on topics ranging from evolution to gene
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[
Cell,
2015]
To investigate the fundamental question of how nervous systems encode, organize, and sequence behaviors, Kato etal. imaged neural activity with cellular resolution across the brain of the worm Caenorhabditis elegans. Locomotion behavior seems to be continuously represented by cyclical patterns of distributed neural activity that are present even in immobilized animals.
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[
Dev Cell,
2013]
Molecular insights into the genetic control of development have been mainly derived from single gene mutant studies. Francesconi and Lehner (2013) report now in Nature a genome-wide map of natural sequence variants that affect the temporal expression dynamics of thousands of genes during development of the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans.
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[
Nat Cell Biol,
2009]
In Caernorhabditis elegans, homologue pairing is mediated by specialized regions near one end of each chromosome in conjunction with zinc finger (ZnF)-bearing proteins. Families of repeated sequences that are enriched within these regions have now been identified. By recruiting their cognate ZnF-bearing proteins, these regions promote pairing and synapsis.
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[
Trends Microbiol,
1999]
As outlined by Michal Jazwinski in his recent review, multiple pathways appear to play a role in determining yeast longevity. One mechanism involves the illegitimate replication of extrachromosomal rDNA circles to toxic levels. A similar sequence of events involving excision, circularization and unfettered replication of mitochondrial (mt) DNA (called senDNA) induces senescence in the fungus Podospora anserina.
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[
Dev Cell,
2003]
Polycomb and Trithorax group proteins have been shown to regulate Hox gene expression in files and mammals, but not in worms. Two reports in this issue of Developmental Cell establish a first link between Polycomb-like genes and Hox gene regulation in C. elegans. However, sequence comparison indicates that these genes may not be homologous to the fly Polycomb genes, suggesting that independent gene recruitment occurred during nematode evolution.
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[
Genes Dev,
2003]
Obesity and the occurrence of diabetes are on the rise. Much of this is attributable to a more sedentary lifestyle and high caloric intake in industrialized countries and is a major cause of a variety of health problems. Obesity and diabetes are intimately linked to insulin, which increases glucose uptake in cells and serves as a primary regulator of blood glucose levels. Insulin has been an important target of investigation for decades, as indicated by its sequence determination by Sanger and colleagues in 1955, and is now the subject of renewed interest.