Caenorhabditis elegans News and Research

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Caenorhabditis elegans is a free-living, transparent nematode (roundworm), about 1 mm in length, which lives in temperate soil environments.

Left-right wiring determined by neural communication in the embryonic worm

Most animals appear symmetrical at first glance, but we're full of internal lop-sidedness.

18 May 2007

Scientists work out mechanism underlying asymmetric cell division in nematode worms

When a cell divides, normally the result is two identical daughter cells. In some cases however, cell division leads to two cells with different properties. This is called asymmetric cell division and plays an important role in embryonic development and the self-renewal of stem cells.

4 May 2007

New insights into brain organisation

Scientists have provided new insights into how and why the brain is organised - knowledge which could eventually inform diagnosis of and treatments for conditions like Alzheimer's disease and autism.

2 Aug 2006

Spatial organisation of the nervous system in primates and worms

Scientists have provided new insights into how the brain is organised - knowledge which could eventually inform diagnosis of and treatments for conditions like Alzheimer's disease and autism.

1 Aug 2006

Research into Parkinson's Disease receives a boost

Research into Parkinson's Disease at the University of Dundee has received a boost from a fundraising campaign organised by the Falkirk Branch of the Parkinson's Disease Society.

29 Jun 2006

Genetic switch that links animal growth and cancer

Laboratory discoveries by scientists at two universities may lead to new directions in cancer therapy drugs. The researchers have discovered that a genetic switch involved in growth and development of an animal is the same one used to prevent normal cells from becoming cancerous.

18 Apr 2006

Starvation activates MAP Kinase through the muscarinic acetylcholine pathway in Caenorhabditis elegans pharynx

New evidence in Cell Metabolism reveals a molecular mechanism that may play a general role in animals' ability to respond appropriately when starved.

7 Apr 2006

Caenorhabditis elegans helps unravel mechanisms of hunger

In research that may have implications for studying eating disorders in humans, a worm the size of a pinhead is helping researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center unravel the mechanisms of hunger.

6 Apr 2006

Smk-1 is the first known gene that regulates longevity without disrupting life-sustaining function

Within a hormone-triggered cascade of molecular signals that plays a crucial for a wide range of physiological functions, researchers for the very first time have identified a protein that functions specifically to extend lifespan and youthfulness - without disrupting fertility

13 Mar 2006

Nematode hormone discovery may aid fight against parasitic disease

New research at UT Southwestern Medical Center shows that on a biochemical level, hormone-like molecules in tiny worms called nematodes work similarly to the way in which certain hormones work in humans - findings that one day may help eradicate worm infections that afflict a third of the world's population.

9 Mar 2006

New genome-wide map of miRNA-MRNA interactions

Researchers at New York University's Center for Comparative Functional Genomics and the University of California, Berkeley have used computational analyses to predict a genome-wide map of microRNA (miRNA) targets in the animal model organism, Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans).

9 Mar 2006

New genes that regulate longevity

In an effort to understand the molecular mechanisms that control aging, Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers and their colleagues have now uncovered 10 new genes that regulate longevity in yeast. The studies also suggest a new model for how aging is slowed when caloric intake is restricted.

20 Nov 2005

Discovery of novel form of regulation of the GLI1 gene

The Quaking gene, first described as a mutation in mice that causes rapid tremor, is thought to suppress tumor formation and protect humans from cancer.

14 Nov 2005

Researchers find gene that is important for the control of fundamental rhythms in nematode worms

University of Utah biologists found a gene that controls rhythmic events in a worm's life: swallowing food, laying eggs and pooping.

9 Oct 2005

Previously unknown family of plague virulence factors identified

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have identified a previously unknown family of virulence factors that make the bacterium responsible for the plague especially efficient at killing its host.

28 Aug 2005

Preliminary molecular diagram of the early stages of embryo formation

A team of genomic researchers headed by biologists at New York University's Center for Comparative Functional Genomics, in collaboration with researchers at Harvard University, the Max Planck Institute, and Cenix Biosciences, has mapped out a preliminary molecular diagram of the early stages of embryo formation, offering for the first time a global look at how a single cell begins its path into a multi-cellular organism.

11 Aug 2005