Response to stress

A stress response is any physical response to factors that upset the normal balance of a biological event. C. elegans nematodes are susceptible to many different environmental stressors that include changes in temperatures, exposure to high osmolarity, and changes in oxygen levels. Internal stressors include DNA damage, accumulation of unfolded proteins, and accumulation of reactive oxygen species. These stressors have been shown to have a strong impact on the lifespan of C. elegans. The regulation of stress responses in the worm are similar to that in other organisms and include modulations of pathways that control caloric intake, mitochondrial respiration, insulin/IGF-1 (IIS), and JNK (c-Jun N-terminal kinase) signaling.

Meiotic maturation

During female gamete production oocytes arrest during the diplotene stage of meiosis I before completing diakinesis and moving into meiosis II. In response to hormones, oocytes resume and complete meiosis to produce the final mature gametes. In C. elegans, meiotic maturation is triggered by major sperm protein through G-alpha-S-adenylate cyclase - protein kinase A (PKA) signaling and soma-to-germline communication.

Mitosis

Mitosis is part of the eukaryotic cell cycle and results in the production of two daughter cells each with a copy of the genome. The cell cycle itself is comprised of an interphase (made up of three stages G1, S, and G2) and the M (mitotic) phase. Cell growth, active transcription and translation, and DNA replication occur during interphase. During M phase duplicated DNA (chromatin) condense into sister chromatids (prophase); the nuclear envelop breaks down, kinetochore microtubles attach to the chromosomes and centrosomes are pushed to the poles of the growing spindle (prometaphase); the chromosomes are lined up on the metaphase plate (metaphase); sister chromatids are pulled to spindle poles at opposite ends of the cell (anaphase); the nuclear envelop is reformed and the chromatids decondense to chromatin (telophase); and the cell is cleaved into two by a contractile ring and the resolution of a cleavage furrow (cytokinesis). In some variant cell cycles nuclear division may not be followed by cell division, or G1 and G2 phases may be absent.