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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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Curr Top Dev Biol,
2000]
The main advantage of C. elegans as an experimental model lies in its simplicity. The full-grown adult is about 1 mm in length and composed of fewer than 1000 somatic nuclei. It has a short reproductive cycle of approximately 3 days and simple nutritional requirements, feeding primarily on bacteria....
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Methods Mol Biol,
2006]
High-pressure freezing (HPF) is capable of converting liquid water, to a depth of approx 0.6 mm, into amorphous ice nearly instantaneously. At midbody, an adult Caenorhabditis elegans hermaphrodite approaches its widest girth of approx 0.1 mm. In theory, an entire living adult animal can be physically immobilized instantly in amorphous ice by HPF, thus, providing a unique opportunity to examine cellular architecture with exquisite spatial preservation. The following chapter will discuss, in detail, procedures for freezing C. elegans under high pressure, for embedding frozen samples in resin after a freeze-substitution step, and for the postembedding immunogold labeling of proteins contained within thin sections of embedded animals. These protocols enable high-resolution analysis of both morphological features and molecular domains within most tissues of C. elegans.
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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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Proc Nutr Soc,
2024]
The relationship between nutrition and ageing is complex. The metabolism and synthesis of micronutrients within the gut microbiome can influence human health but is challenging to study. Furthermore, studying ageing in humans is time-consuming and difficult to control for environmental factors. Studies in model organisms can guide research efforts in this area. This review describes how the nematode <i>Caenorhabditis elegans</i> can be used to study how bacteria and diet influence ageing and inform follow-on studies in humans. It is known that certain bacteria accelerate ageing in <i>C. elegans</i>. This age-accelerating effect is prevented by inhibiting folate synthesis within the bacteria, and we propose that in the human microbiome, certain bacteria also accelerate ageing in a way that can be modulated by interfering with bacterial folate synthesis. Bacterial-derived folates do not promote ageing themselves; rather, ageing is accelerated by bacteria in some way, either through secondary metabolites or other bacterial activity, which is dependent on bacterial folate synthesis. In humans, it may be possible to inhibit bacterial folate synthesis in the human gut while maintaining healthy folate status in the body via food and supplementation. The supplement form of folic acid has a common breakdown product that can be used by bacteria to increase folate synthesis. Thus, supplementation with folic acid may not be good for health in certain circumstances such as in older people or those with an excess of proteobacteria in their microbiome. For these groups, alternative supplement strategies may be a safer way to ensure adequate folate levels.
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[
2017]
Caenorhabditis elegans is a 1-mm-long free-living nematode that feeds on bacteria. The feeding organ of C. elegans is a pharynx, a neuromuscular tube responsible for sucking bacteria into the worm from outside, concentrating them, and grinding them up (Doncaster 1962, Seymour et al. 1983). The basic mechanics and the neurons and muscles used to execute feeding motion are important for understanding several feeding behaviors and are therefore briefly described. More details regarding cellular and nuclear composition, the structure, electrophysiology, and the molecular components can be found in Avery and You (2012).