In the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans, the dauer pheromone is the primary cue for entry into the developmentally arrested, dauer larval stage. The dauer is specialized for survival under harsh environmental conditions and is considered "nonaging" because larvae that exit dauer have a normal life span. C. elegans constitutively secretes the dauer pheromone into its environment, enabling i...

The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans represents an excellent model for studying many aspects of sterol function on the level of a whole organism. Recent studies show that especially two processes in the life cycle of the worm, dauer larva formation and molting, depend on sterols. In both cases, cholesterol or its derivatives seem to act as hormones rather than being structural components of the ...

The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans changes its chemotaxis to NaCl depending on previous experience. At the behavioral level, this chemotactic plasticity is generated by reversing the elementary behaviors for chemotaxis, klinotaxis, and klinokinesis. Here, we report that bidirectional klinotaxis is achieved by the proper use of at least two different neural subcircuits. We simulated an NaCl con...

A database of sequences of 139 introns from the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans was analyzed using the information measure of Schneider et al. (1986) J. Mol. Biol. 128: 415-431. Statistically significant information is encoded by at least the first 30 nt and last 20 nt of C. elegans introns. Both the quantity and the distribution of information in the 5' splice site sequences differs between th...

Two ageing models were analysed whether they can confirm that the dauer mutation of the nematode helps to preserve the species. As a result the Penna model shows that populations with dauer larvae survive bad environmental conditions, whereas populations without it die out. In the Stauffer model the advantage of the dauer mutation for the survival is only given under certain conditions.

A nematicide, 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furoic acid (1), was isolated from cultures of the fungus Aspergillus sp. and its structure was identified by spectroscopic analysis. Compound 1 showed effective nematicidal activities against the pine wood nematode Bursaphelenchus xylophilus and the free-living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans without inhibitory activity against plant growth, but 1 did not show a...

Caenorhabditis elegans postembryonic development consists of four discrete larval stages separated by molts. Typically, the speed of progression through these larval stages is investigated by visual inspection of the molting process. Here, we describe an automated method to monitor the timing of these discrete phases of C. elegans maturation, from the first larval stage through adulthood, using...

At present, more and people are suffering from various diseases it is particularly important to find a suitable biological model evaluate the prevention treatment effects of drugs active ingredients on diseases. In all models, Caenorhabditis elegans kind organism that easy observe cultivate, has clear genetic background high degree signal pathway conservation with humans. A variety such as poly...

Protein family Biochemical function Representative Proteins H. sapiens D. melanogaster C. elegans A. thaliana S. cerevisiae S. pombe classical microtubule

Projecting from most cell surfaces, cilia serve as important hubs for sensory and signaling processes have been linked to a variety of human disorders, including Bardet-Biedl Syndrome (BBS), Meckel-Gruber (MKS), Nephronophthisis (NPHP), Joubert Syndrome, these diseases are collectively known ciliopathy. DCDC2 is ciliopathy protein that localizes cilia; nevertheless, our understanding the role i...