Wood W (2012) Curr Biol "Wound healing: calcium flashes illuminate early events."

Wood W

[Curr Biol, 2012]

What are the earliest signals produced at a wound edge that mobilise epithelial cells to heal the wound? Live analysis of wound healing in the worm Caenorhabditis elegans shows that calcium may be the key early trigger.

Wood AJ et al. (2015) Dev Cell "A TAD Closer to Understanding Dosage Compensation."

Wood AJ, Bickmore WA

[Dev Cell, 2015]

Eukaryotic chromosomes are organized into topological domains, but how these are established and maintained is poorly understood. Writing in Nature, Crane et al. (2015) show that a specialized condensin complex enforces the domain boundaries along the C. elegans X chromosome to equalize transcription from the X between males and hermaphrodites.

Baker M (2011) Nat Methods "More options for gene editing."

Baker M

[Nat Methods, 2011]

Engineering precise genetic changes in a genome is powerful way to study gene function, and several recent papers describe new applications of gene-editing tools. Working with researchers at Sangamo BioSciences, Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Barbara Meyer and her colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley, described the first systems for making targeted genomic modifications in the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans, a valuable model organism (Wood et al., 2011).

Wu MN et al. (2011) Curr Biol "Notch signaling: a role in sleep and stress."

Raizen DM, Wu MN

[Curr Biol, 2011]

The molecular pathways regulating sleep remain poorly understood. Studies in this issue demonstrate a role for Notch signaling in sleep regulation as well as stress response in both Caenorhabditis elegans and Drosophila.

Luo S et al. (2006) J Biol "Regulators of kinesin involved in polarized trafficking and axon outgrowth."

Nonet ML, Luo S

[J Biol, 2006]

ABSTRACT : Proteins such as UNC-76 that associate with kinesin motors are important in directing neurite extension. A small Caenorhabditis elegans coiled-coil protein, UNC-69, has now been shown to interact with UNC-76 and to be involved in axonal (but not dendritic) transport and outgrowth, as well as synapse formation.

Cypser J et al. (2001) Hum Exp Toxicol "Hormesis extends the correlation between stress resistance and life span in long-lived mutants of Caenorhabditis elegans."

Cypser J, Johnson TE

[Hum Exp Toxicol, 2001]

In general we agree with Dr. Rattan's thesis. Mutations that increase both life span and resistance to environmental stress have been documented in model systems as diverse as Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila melanogaster, and Mus musculus. The correlation between life extension (Age) and increased stress resistance is well established in C. elegans carrying single-gene

Partridge L et al. (1992) Nature "Evolutionary biology. What the sperm count costs."

Partridge L, Harvey PH

[Nature, 1992]

Dissecting the sex life of the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans has already provided surprises for biologists interested in life-history theory. In a report on page 456 of this issue, Van Voorhies throws another spanner in the works by demonstrating that the costs of producing sperm are not as negligible as we might have thought.

Goutte C (2002) Dev Cell "Genetics leads the way to the accomplices of presenilins."

Goutte C

[Dev Cell, 2002]

Presenilins mediate they-secretase cleavage of Notch transmembrane receptors as well as the transmembrane P-amyloid precursor protein (PAPP), but they are not thought to accomplish this alone. Recent genetic screens in C. elegans, presented in this issue of Developmental Cell, identify two genes that are essential to gamma-secretase activity and may interact with presenilins.

Sumiyoshi E et al. (2012) Curr Biol "Cell polarity: centrosomes release signals for polarization."

Sumiyoshi E, Sugimoto A

[Curr Biol, 2012]

New findings reveal that, in Caenorhabditis elegans embryos, the centrosome provides signals that induce cell polarization, independently of its function as the microtubule-organizing center.

O'Hagan R et al. (2015) Nat Cell Biol "A motor relay on ciliary tracks."

Barr MM, O'Hagan R

[Nat Cell Biol, 2015]

A powerful combination of two-colour imaging in vivo, Fourier-filtered kymography and simulations provides a high-resolution view of kinesin-2 transport dynamics in cilia. This study reveals heterotrimeric kinesin-II as an 'obstacle-course runner' and homodimeric OSM-3 (KIF17) as a 'long-distance runner', and elucidates the 'baton handoff' between these two kinesin-2 motors on the microtubule track.