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New York Times,
1996]
Mutant worms that live five times as long as their normal counterparts are yielding clues to the genetic control of life span-and lending new credence to the old idea that one way to live longer might be to live less.
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Curr Opin Chem Biol,
2001]
Protein -interaction mapping approaches generate functional information for large numbers of genes that are predicted from complete genome sequences. This information, released as databases available on the Internet, is likely to transform the way biologists formulate and then address their questions of interest.
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Ann Appl Biol,
2005]
Genomic tools are expanding the utility of organisms originally developed as models for biomedical research as a means to address complex agricultural problems. Conversely, agricultural pests are serving as models to help unravel questions of basic biology. Examples from C. elegans and root-knot nematode of this two-way exchange are discussed.
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Curr Biol,
1999]
In the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans gonad shape and size is determined by the migration of a leader cell, which is at the tip of the growing gonad arm. A metalloprotease secreted by the leader cell has recently been found to play an essential role in this process, preparing the way ahead for the cell's migration.
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Developmental Cell,
2004]
The X chromosome is largely inactivated in spermatogenesis of heterogametic males, and in multiple phyla it encodes few genes specifically expressed in the male germline. Writing in Nature Genetics, Bean et al. report a parallel between male germline X inactivation in nematodes and a fungal gene-silencing mechanism that alters the way we view the evolution of both phenomena.
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Trends in Ecology & Evolution,
2002]
In the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, developmental biologists find that tissues derived from embryonic germ-line progenitor cells regulate reproductive costs. New work from the laboratory of Cynthia Kenyon demonstrates that signals that reduce adult survival are mediated by a small set of progenitor descendants, the germ-line stem cells, and by their interaction with components of the endocrine system. Caenorhabditis elegans is now providing a new way of understanding the mechanisms of tradeoffs between reproduction and ageing.
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Free Radic Biol Med,
2015]
Recent findings in diverse organisms strongly support a conserved role for mitochondrial electron transport chain dysfunction in longevity modulation, but the underlying mechanisms are not well understood. One way cells cope with mitochondrial dysfunction is through a retrograde transcriptional reprogramming response. In this review, we primarily focus on the work that has been performed in Caenorhabditis elegans to elucidate these mechanisms. We describe several transcription factors that participate in mitochondria-to-nucleus signaling and discuss how they mediate the relationship between mitochondrial dysfunction and life span.
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Adv Genet,
2003]
Despite the intimate nature of the aging process we actually know little about it. In more recent years, work on a variety of organisms, utilizing approaches including demography, molecular genetics, and epidemiology, have challenged some of the more commonly held assumptions about the aging process. These studies have served to reinvigorate the field of aging research and are beginning to lead the way in a renaissance in aging research (Helfand and Inouye, 2002). Invertebrate model systems such as Drosophila and Caenorhabditis elegans that permit extensive genetic analysis are at the forefront of this renaissance.
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Curr Opin Chem Biol,
2001]
In many species, double-stranded RNA can specifically and effectively silence genes. This newly discovered biological phenomenon, called RNA interference (RNAi), has practical implications for functional genomics. As shown by two recent reports, RNAi provides a rapid method to test the function of genes in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans; most of the genes on C. elegans chromosome I and III have now been tested for RNAi phenotypes. The results validate RNAi as a powerful functional genomics tool for C. elegans, and point the way for similar large-scale studies in other species.
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Curr Opin Anaesthesiol,
2012]
PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Although general anesthetics have been provided effectively for many years, their exact molecular underpinnings remain relatively unknown. In this article, we discuss the recent findings associated with resistance to anesthetic effects as a way of shedding light on these mechanisms. RECENT FINDINGS: The original theories of anesthetic action based upon their effects on cellular membranes have given way to specific theories concerning direct effects on ion channel proteins. These molecular targets are intimately involved in the conduct of neuronal signaling within the central nervous system and are thought to be essential in the modulation of conscious states. It is the lack of a thorough understanding of unperturbed consciousness that fosters great difficulty in understanding how anesthetics alter this conscious state. However, one very fruitful line of analysis in the quest for such answers lies in the examination of both in-vitro and in-vivo ion channel systems that seem to maintain variable levels of resistance to anesthetics. SUMMARY: Information about the possible targets and molecular nature of anesthetic action is being derived from studies of anesthetic resistance in aminobutyric acid receptors, tandem pore potassium channels, and an apparently wide variety of protein systems within the nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans.