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[
Worm Breeder's Gazette,
1993]
We have been trying to develop a set of classroom experiments that would use C. elegans to teach basic genetic concepts to high school students. For this purpose, C. elegans has obvious advantages over Drosophila, the current standard organism. Our goal is to have students doing the following experiments: isolating soil nematodes from the wild, and performing simple genetic crosses that would demonstrate dominant, recessive, and X-linked mutations. The immediate problem is teaching a high school student how to pick up and transfer a worm. First, in a class of 20-30 students, each student would ideally learn how to do this in a few minutes. Most worm-breeders will recall that it took us much longer to become proficient at worm-picking. However, a high school student will only use this skill for one or two experiments before moving on to another lab exercise. Also, most high schools only have a few low-quality dissecting microscopes that students must share, so microscope time becomes limiting. Second, the purchase of platinum wire and making of picks are inconvenient. We have had some recent success (ourselves, not with students) using bamboo skewers available in local supermarkets. It is possible to dab the skewer with sticky bacteria, and then dab up large worms to set up a mating. In this context, niceties like sterility or scratching the surface of the agar are not so important. So far we have not even tried to use C. elegans with a whole class. However, a few high school students have used C. elegans for longer-term after-school projects, and one recently won first prize in a county science fair. Please contact us if you have any suggestions or experience from teaching labs, etc.
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Cell Syst,
2016]
Two genome-scale network models for Caenorhabditis elegans offer a powerful new way to delineate context-dependent metabolic activity in the worm.
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J Neurosci,
2003]
Thermotactic behavior in Caenorhabditis elegans is sensitive to both a worm's ambient temperature (T-amb) and its memory of the temperature of its cultivation (T-cult). The AFD neuron is part of a neural circuit that underlies thermotactic behavior. By monitoring the fluorescence of pH-sensitive green fluorescent protein localized to synaptic vesicles, we measured the rate of the synaptic release of AFD in worms cultivated at temperatures between 15 and 25degreesC, and subjected to fixed, ambient temperatures in the same range. We found that the rate of AFD synaptic release is high if either T-amb > T-cult or T-amb > T-cult, but AFD synaptic release is low if T-amb congruent to T-cult. This suggests that AFD encodes a direct comparison between T-amb and T-cult.
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[
Curr Biol,
2010]
It has long been known that cells can divide unequally by shifting the mitotic spindle to one side. Two recent reports identify an alternative way to generate daughter cells of different sizes.
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[
Worm Breeder's Gazette,
1994]
FROM ASCARIS TO C. ELEGANS: A WAY TO STUDY GENE STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION Huang Y-J., Tobler H. and Muller F., Institute of Zoology, University of Pribourg, Perolles, CH-1700 Fribourg, Switzerland
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Methods Mol Biol,
2014]
Unbiased genetic screens are an excellent way to discover novel genes involved in specific biological processes in vivo. Modifier screens, whether to suppress or enhance a phenotype, are a powerful way to find proteins that modulate biological processes responsible for specific phenotypes. However, modification of phenotypes that are only partially penetrant, which is often the case, are often extremely difficult to screen this way in a traditional F2 or non-clonal genetic screen. Here we describe an F3 or clonal screen in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans to search for genes that modify partially penetrant phenotypes. Specifically we describe a screen to search for modifiers of genes that cause defects in migration of a specific developmentally regulated cell, the distal tip cell.
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Nature,
2000]
A tiny RNA molecule ensures that the larvae of a roundworm develop into adults. The discovery of this RNA in many other animal groups implies that this way of keeping developmental time may be universal.
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Trends Mol Med,
2007]
Transforming growth factor beta1 (TGFbeta1), an important pleiotropic, immunoregulatory cytokine, uses distinct signaling mechanisms in lymphocytes to affect T-cell homeostasis, regulatory T (T(reg))-cell and effector-cell function and tumorigenesis. Defects in TGFbeta1 expression or its signaling in T cells correlate with the onset of several autoimmune diseases. TGFbeta1 prevents abnormal T-cell activation through the modulation of Ca(2+)-calcineurin signaling in a Caenorhabditis elegans Sma and Drosophila Mad proteins (SMAD)3 and SMAD4-independent manner; however, in T(reg) cells, its effects are mediated, at least in part, through SMAD signaling. TGFbeta1 also acts as a pro-inflammatory cytokine and induces interleukin (IL)-17-producing pathogenic T-helper cells (T(h) IL-17 cells) synergistically during an inflammatory response in which IL-6 is produced. Here, we will review TGFbeta1 and its signaling in T cells with an emphasis on the regulatory arm of immune tolerance.
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[
Genomics,
1995]
Recently, a novel family of genes with a region of homology to the mouse T locus, which is known to play a crucial, and conserved, role in vertebrate development, has been discovered. The region of homology has been named the T-box. The T-box domain of the prototypical T locus product is associated with sequence-specific DNA binding activity. In this report, we have characterized four members of the T-box gene family from the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. All lie in close proximity to each other in the middle of chromosome III. Homology analysis among all completely sequenced T-box products indicates a larger size for the conserved T-box domain (166 to 203 residues) than previously reported. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that one C. elegans T-box gene may be a direct ortholog of the mouse Tbx2 and Drosophila omb genes. The accumulated data demonstrate the ancient nature of the T-box gene family and suggest the existence of at least three separate T-box-containing genes in a common early metazoan ancestor to nematodes and vertebrates.
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Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol,
2000]
Cargo molecules have to be included in carrier vesicles of different forms and sizes to be transported between organelles. During this process, a limited set of proteins, including the coat proteins COPI, COPII and clathrin, carries out a programmed set of sequential interactions that lead to the budding of vesicles. A general model to explain the formation of coated vesicles is starting to emerge but the picture is more complex than we had imagined.