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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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[
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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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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Science,
2009]
Network analysis has emerged as a powerful way of studying phenomena as diverse as interpersonal interaction, connections among neurons, and the structure of the Internet. Appropriate use of network analysis depends, however, on choosing the right network representation for the problem at hand.
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Mol Cell Biol,
2009]
Dosage compensation equalizes X-linked gene products between the sexes. In C. elegans, the dosage compensation complex (DCC) binds both X-chromosomes in XX animals and halves transcription from each. The DCC is recruited to the X-chromosomes by a number of loci, rex sites, and is thought to spread from these sites by an unknown mechanism to cover the rest of the chromosome. Here we describe a novel class of DCC-binding elements that we propose serve as "way stations" for DCC binding and spreading. Both rex sites and way stations comprise strong foci of DCC binding on the native X chromosome. However, rex sites maintain their ability to bind large amounts of DCC even on X duplications detached from the native X, while way stations do not. These results suggest that two distinct classes of DCC-binding elements facilitate recruitment and spreading of the DCC along the X chromosome.
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Trends Parasitol,
2015]
Recent advances in handling and readout have facilitated high-throughput screens with Caenorhabditis elegans. A new study demonstrates that C. elegans is a useful tool in high-throughput anthelminthic drug discovery. Despite challenges, drug discovery using C. elegans offers opportunities that might lead the way to novel anthelminthic drugs.
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Nature,
1981]
The dauer larva of Caenorhabditis elegans is a developmentally arrested stage induced by starvation or overcrowding. Mutant genes controlling the ability to form dauer larvae interact in a way which allows them to be ordered in a pathway. Mutant phenotypes suggest that the pathway corresponds to neural processing of environmental stimuli.
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Angew Chem Int Ed Engl,
2012]
Chemistry the worm's way: The nematode Pristionchus pacificus constructs elaborate small molecules from modified building blocks of primary metabolism, including an unusual xylopyranose-based nucleoside (see scheme). These compounds act as signaling molecules to control adult phenotypic plasticity and dauer development and provide examples of modular generation of structural diversity in metazoans.
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Curr Biol,
2022]
How does tissue elongation occur? A recent paper identifies a new mechanism: elongation of the Caenorhabditis elegans hermaphrodite gonad is driven by pressure from proliferating germ cells confined within a tube. The distal tip cell, which caps the tube, remodels the extracellular matrix and adjusts cell-matrix adhesion to guide the way.
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Science,
2000]
Building an organ is a precise business. Organ rudiments must often navigate through a complex, three-dimensional terrain as their shape is transformed, and they must do so in a way that is carefully orchestrated with other concurrent developmental events. Many organ rudiments develop as tubular structures that are elaborated as the rudiment grows...