The Caenorhabditis elegans embryo is well suited to morphogenetic analysis via modern microscopy, due to its short generation time, transparency, invariant lineage, and the ability to generate transgenic embryos expressing various fluorescent proteins. This chapter provides an overview of microscopy techniques for imaging embryonic morphogenesis, including making agar mounts, capturing four-dim...

The evolution of breeding systems results from the existence of genetic variation and selective forces favoring different outcrossing rates. In this study we determine the extent of genetic variation for characters directly related to outcrossing, such as male frequency, male mating ability, and male reproductive success, in several wild isolates of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. This spe...

Dauer larva formation in Caenorhabditis elegans is controlled by chemosensory cells that respond to environmental cues. Genetic interactions among mutations in 23 genes that affect dauer larva formation were investigated. Mutations in seven genes that cause constitutive dauer formation, and mutations in 16 genes that either block dauer formation or result in the formation of abnormal dauers, we...

Comparative analysis of predicted protein sequences encoded by the genomes of Caenorhabditis elegans and Saccharomyces cerevisiae suggests that most of the core biological functions are carried out by orthologous proteins (proteins of different species that can be traced back to a common ancestor) that occur in comparable numbers. The specialized processes of signal transduction and regulatory ...

The Caenorhabditis elegans genome sequence was surveyed for transcription factor and signaling gene families that have been shown to regulate development in a variety of species. About 10 to 25 percent of the genes in most of the gene families already have been genetically analyzed in C. elegans, about half of the genes detect probable orthologs in other species, and about 10 to 25 percent of t...

Chemical analysis and a study of renaturation kinetics show that the nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans, has a haploid DNA content of 8 x 10(7) base pairs (20 times the genome of E. coli). Eighty-three percent of the DNA sequences are unique. The mean base composition is 36% GC; a small component, containing the rRNA cistrons, has a base composition of 51% GC. The haploid genome contains about 30...

The early Caenorhabditis elegans embryo is an attractive model to investigate evolutionarily conserved cellular mechanisms. However, there is a paucity of automated methods to gather quantitative information with subcellular precision in this system. We developed ASSET (Algorithm for the Segmentation and the Standardization of C. elegans Time-lapse recordings) to fill this need. ASSET automatic...

Studies of Caenorhabditis elegans vulval development provide a paradigm for pattern formation during animal development. The fates of the six vulval precursor cells are specified by the combined action of an inductive signal that activates the EGF receptor mitogen-activated PK signaling pathway (specifying a primary fate) and a lateral signal mediated by LIN-12/Notch (specifying a secondary fat...

Overview Caenorhabditis elegans is an important, widely used developmental and genetic model. A pheromone has long been known to cause juvenile developmental arrest in C. elegans, a phenomenon that is common among nematodes more widely. Many novel effects of this pheromone are now being discovered—most recently, that exogenous supply of this pheromone controls adult worms reproduction. Here, we...

The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is a favorite model for the study of aging. A wealth of genetic and genomic studies show that metabolic regulation is a hallmark of life-span modulation. A recent study in BMC Biology identifying metabolic signatures for longevity suggests that amino-acid pools may be important in longevity.