The heterochronic genes lin-4, lin-14, lin-28, and lin-29 specify the timing of lateral hypodermal seam cell terminal differentiation in Caenorhabditis elegans. We devised a screen to identify additional genes involved in this developmental timing mechanism based on identification of mutants that exhibit temporal misexpression from the col-19 promoter, a downstream target of the heterochronic g...

Exposure of prawns to dark- or light-coloured substrates is known to trigger a strong colour adaptation response through expansion or contraction of the colouration structures in the prawn hypodermis. Despite the difference in colour triggered by this adaptive response, total levels of the predominant carotenoid pigment, astaxanthin, are not modified, suggesting that another mechanism is regula...

The lin-14 locus of Caenorhabditis elegans plays an important role in specifying the normal timing and sequence of developmental events in the lateral hypodermal cell lineages. The results of gene dosage, complementation, and temperature-shift experiments indicate that the fates expressed by cells at successive stages of these cell lineages are specified by the level of lin-14 activity and that...

We have characterized the developmental expression pattern of the Caenorhabditis elegans homologue of the mouse ky gene. The Ky protein has a putative key function in muscle development and has homologues in invertebrates, fungi and a cyanobacterium. The C. elegans Ky homologue gene has been named ltd-1 for LIM and transglutaminase domains gene. The LTD-1::GFP construct is expressed in developi...

Better understanding of the fundamental mechanisms behind metabolic diseases requires methods to monitor lipid stores on single-cell level in vivo. We have used Caenorhabditis elegans as a model organism to demonstrate the limitations of fluorescence microscopy for imaging of lipids compared with coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy, the latter allowing chemically specific an...