background : 5-fluorouracil could lead to a decline in fertility in caenorhabditis elegans. the aim of this study was to describe the mechanisms underlying such an altered fertility phenotype and to illustrate the specific genes and path-ways that are involved in the related phenotypic changes in c. elegans. methods : we isolated total rna from the samples and used a new method called digital g...

In Caenorhabditis elegans, cell migration is guided by localized cues, including molecules such as EGL-17/FGF and UNC-6/netrin. These external cues are linked to an intracellular response to migrate, at least in part, by CED-5, a homolog of DOCK180/MBC, and MIG-2, a Rac-like GTPase. In addition, metalloproteases are required for a cell migration that controls organ shape.

DAF-16, the C. elegans FOXO transcription factor, is an important determinant in aging and longevity. In this work, we manually curated FOXODB http://lyh.pkmu.cn/foxodb/, a database of FOXO direct targets. It now covers 208 genes. Bioinformatics analysis on 109 DAF-16 direct targets in C. elegans found interesting results. (i) DAF-16 and transcription factor PQM-1 co-regulate some targets. (ii)...

Evolutionary transitions between sexual modes could be potent forces in genome evolution. Several Caenorhabditis nematode species have evolved self-fertile hermaphrodites from the obligately outcrossing females of their ancestors. We explored the relationship between sexual mode and global gene expression by comparing two selfing species, C. elegans and C. briggsae, with three phylogenetically ...

In certain organisms, numbers of crossover events for any single chromosome are limited ("crossover interference") so that double crossover events are obtained at much lower frequencies than would be expected from the simple product of independent single-crossover events. We present a number of observations during which we examined interference over a large region of Caenorhabditis elegans chro...

Here, we used a Caenorhabditis elegans microbiome model to demonstrate how genetic differences in innate immunity alter composition, diversity, and stability by changing the ecological processes that shape these communities. These results provide insight into role of host genetics controlling ecology host-associated microbiota, resulting community successional trajectories, response perturbation.

Both dispersal and local competitive ability may determine the outcome of competition among species that cannot coexist locally. I develop a spatially implicit model of two-species competition at a small spatial scale. The model predicts the relative fitness of two competitors based on local reproductive rates and regional dispersal rates in the context of the number, size, and extinction proba...

The nematodeCaenorhabditiselegansis one of the premier experimental model organisms today. In the laboratory, they display characteristic development, fertility, and behaviors in a two dimensional habitat. In nature, however,C. elegansis found in three dimensional environments such as rotting fruit. To investigate the biology ofC. elegansin a 3D controlled environment we designed a nematode cul...