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Facts about the Worm C. elegans: First described as a species in 1900 Proposed as a model organism by Sydney Brenner in 1965 In the wild: lives in the soil and eats bacteria Easy to culture in the lab on plates growing standard E. coli Size: 1mm and transparent, so can only be seen with the microscope o One of the smallest, simplest organisms with a nervous system Figure 1 C. elegans worms as seen through an ordinary light microscope From: http://www.kcchosting.co.uk/~pc/NewSite/the_genetics _society Lifespan: o Egg (1 day) o 4 Larval stages with molting after each one (3 days) o Adult (Lives another 7 days) 2 sexes: self-fertilizing hermaphrodite and male Physiology: o Mouth and Digestive System o Reproductive System o Nervous System (but no brain) o Cuticle (skin) o Can sense chemicals (smell and taste), sense of touch, can detect heat but not light or sound Figure 2 C. elegans Anatomy From: http://universereview.ca/I10-82celegan.jpg Genome: o 6 different chromosomes (humans: 23) o Genome size 100 million bases (humans: 3 billion) o About 20 000 genes (humans: 30 000) About 6 000 C. elegans genes have human homologues o Entire genome of C. elegans has been sequenced, and so has that of 4 other similar worms, with another 5-10 on the way Laboratory Experiments o Knock out one gene at a time to see what the effect is o Insert Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) into the genome to make parts of the worm turn green o Feed the worm with bacteria containing Interfering RNA, which will turn off just one gene o Destroy just one cell during embryogenesis and see what happens Figure 3 C. elegans worm with all cells in the nervous system expressing GFP From: http://www.biologie.ens.fr/bcsgnce/ Bioinformatics Experiments o Compare C. elegans genome to that of other worms to look for regions of sequence that are conserved (shared) and might be important o Measure the gene expression of a specific cell or tissue and see which genes are being used Nobel Prizes have been awarded to 5 C. elegans researchers: o 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Sydney Brenner – pioneering genetic studies John Sulston – elucidating the exact cell lineage from one fertilized egg to 959 cells in the adult Robert Horvitz – investigation of programmed cell death, which later turned out to be very important in the development of cancer o 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Andrew Fire and Craig Mello– discovery of RNA interference during translation