News tips from the Journal of Neuroscience
...e is between eating andmating, the Caenorhabditis elegans malechooses eating, according to the experimentsof Gruninger et al. The authorsstarted by looking at the unc-103 gene,which is necessary for appropriate timingof sex-related behaviors. unc-103 encodesan ERG (ether-a-go-go-related gene)-likevolta...MicroRNA gene that regulates lifespan found by Yale scientists
... used the simple, but genetically well-studied, C. elegans worm and found genes that are directly involved in...orm development stages-- and the worm lifespan. C. elegans has been the premier model organism for studying the genetics of aging, and an excellent predictor o...Algal protein in worm neurons allows remote control of behavior by light
...pression of a modified form of ChR2 in specific C. elegans neurons and muscle cells. The researchers found th... to light) even in mutant worms that lacked the C. elegans ion channel that normally mediates backing behavior in response to touch. The researchers performed ...Fertility genes discovered at Rugters
...stead turned to the lowly roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans), the first multicellular organism to ...ced. In addition to having its genome sequence, C. elegans offers particular advantages as a model system one from which results can be extrapolated to other ...Learning about sex from an elegant worm
...e researchers offer new insight into meiosis in C. elegans in two papers published in the 16 December, 2005 i...r published in the 9 December issue of Science. C. elegans is a tiny worm less than a millimeter in length and completely transparent. Its reproductive organs ...Teaching worms good taste: Researcher reveals the cell biology of learning at ASCB meeting
...y of the genes that drive the nervous system of C. elegans have human homologs. Therefore, by studying the ed...a to humans. Zhang traced olfactory learning in C. elegans to a pair of ADF neurons that produce serotonin. Worms trained through bitter experience to recogniz...Flatworm genes may provide insights into human diseases, researchers say
...ark and colleagues. Drosophila melanogaster and C. elegans (Caenorhabditis elegans) are standard model invertebrates used in biology. "The fact that they don't have some of the genes that planarians share with mammals says that planarians will be an important, complementary model for studying gene function,"...Worms know bad food when they smell it
...i. But in its natural environment, the soil, C. elegans encounters an astounding variety of bacteria. As it writhes through its world, the worm might meet up with hundreds of different species of bacteria in as little as five minutes. But while some bacteria make ideal worm food, others are toxic. "The ...Researchers discover new form of cancer gene regulation
...s conserved from human to the worm, Caenorhabditis elegans (often used in laboratory research), indicating that the formation of these RNA protein complexes is a very ancient form of regulation of protein function. Olga Lakiza, postdoctoral fellow in pediatrics at the Feinberg School, was the first author ...... developed defects in ovulating and pooping. C. elegans worms are hermaphrodites both male and female and make their own sperm and eggs. Rhythmic contractions control how the eggs are pushed down the tube-like gonadal sheath and into the spermatheca, which contains sperm. When vav-1 is disabled, the ...Evolutionary conservation of a mechanism of longevity from worms to mammals
...e study of aging in the nematode model organism C. elegans has provided much insight into this complex proces...n of the gene mclk1, the murine ortholog of the C. elegans gene clk-1, results in increased cellular fitness and prolonged lifespan in mice. The gene clk-1 i...Hebrew U. / Johns Hopkins study provides clues to dealing with human disease
... in the nuclear envelope of cells from the tiny C. elegans worm. Their aim is to thus provide clues towards a...y for normal cell reproduction. Even though the C. elegans worm has only one lamin protein and few proteins that interact with it, the processes that occur the...Novel plague virulence factor identified
...e the pathogenesis system using the Caenorhabditis elegans worm can accelerate the process of better understa...nts have demonstrated how closely the Y. pestis-C. elegans model we developed mimics what happens when Y. pestis infects mammals," said Duke microbiologist Ale...UC Riverside researchers discover model organism for studying viruses that affect humans
...s researchers throughout the world have studied C. elegans because many aspects of its biology, such as genet...paper are now being used to generate additional C. elegans strains for screening chemical compounds that inactivate RNAi suppressors associated with avian flu,...NYU biologists map out early stages of embryo formation
...dying the function of the genome of Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans), the first animal species whose genome was completely sequenced and a model organism to study how embryos develop. With the complete genome sequence of C. elegans, the researchers sought to comprehend how the parts encoded by the genome...Tiny roundworm's telomeres help scientists to tease apart different types of aging
...r the first time that the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans succumbs to the trials of old age although its tel...art at the very beginning. But now we know that C. elegans is the perfect model organism to study telomere biology since their regulation is similar to human t...Wnt signaling in polarized cell divisions
... (WRM-1) during polarized cell divisions during C. elegans development. Dr. Craig Mello and colleagues used c...itoshi Sawa & Hisako Takeshita observed that in C. elegans larval development, beta-catenin is localized to the anterior cortex during cell division and to the...Small worm yields big clue on muscle receptor action
...humans and the much-studied laboratory nematode C. elegans which may open new pathways of research on muscle function. The neurotransmitter acetylcholine binds to two different nicotinic receptors at the nematode's neuromuscular junctions, causing them to contract. Previously, researchers knew the subunit co...Researchers identify new genes that regulate aging
...y genes by screening the genome of Caenorhabditis elegans , a small worm that is used as a model organism in genetics studies. The findings are reported in the inaugural issue of PLoS Genetics . Each of the 23 genes somehow normally acts to reduce longevity, whereas inhibiting any one of them increases...Fluorescing lab worms signal longer life spans, reports CU-Boulder team
... have been tinkering with proteins and genes of C. elegans in attempts to understand more about how life span can be increased. Although interventions involving pharmaceuticals and other treatments clearly have a substantial effect on human longevity, many believe that the primary key to longer and healthie...