-
[
The New York Times,
1997]
His tall figure bent over a computer screen in his laboratory at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Gary Ruvkun rummages through a distant genetic data base for matches to a gene he believes is involved in diabetes. ?You learn how to read these as they are ratcheting by,? he says, while lines of data streak up his screen. ?I think MTV is good training.?
-
[
Journal of Helminthology,
1955]
Osche (1952) has recently published a sorely needed, comprehensive revision of the genus Rhabditis Dujardin [1844] (sensu lato) including detailed study of certain features of the cephalic end, especially of the stoma or mouth cavity. For some time to come his study will surely be the point of departure for morpholigical and systematic work on the group. On the basis principally of the structure of the metastom (a subdivision of the stoma) and of the esophagus, he recognizes some eight subgenera in the genus Rhabditis, which are as follows: Rhabditis Dujardin [1844] (sensu stricto), Choriorhabditis Osche, 1952, Telorhabditis Osche, 1952, Caenorhabditis Osche, 1952, Mesorhabditis Osche, 1952, Teratorhabditis Oshce, 1952, Protorhabditis Osche, 1952, and Parasitorhabditis Fuch, 1937. For all of these save the last he lists the species recognized by him. For a revision of Parasitorhabditis he refers to an unpublished manuscript by Ruhm.....
-
[
Trends in Ecology & Evolution,
1999]
In a recent TREE news & comment, Gadagkar made some useful comments on LaMunyon and Ward's interesting study on sexual reproduction in nematodes. I think, however, that he - and LaMunyon and Ward - have confused the benefits of sex for species or demes with those for individuals or genes.
-
Craxton M, Cooper JA, Blair D, Dear S, Coulson AR, Anderson K, Durbin RM, Ainscough R, Du Z, Waterston RH, Connell M, Berks M
[
Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol,
1993]
he C. elegans genome project is part of a larger effort to understand how the information encoded in its DNA specifies the biology of this small nematode worm...In this paper we review the construction of the physical map and present a preliminary report on the pilot sequencing project. A more detailed report will be published shortly.
-
[
Cell Death and Differentiation,
2004]
The award of the 2002 Nobel Prize to Brenner, Sulston, and Horvitz was one of the most satisfying I can recall, recognizing as it did the long sought meaningful conjunction of developmental biology with cancer research. Cancer is the ultimate derangement of growth and differentiation, affecting as it does the placenta, the embryo, the fetus, the infant, the child, the adolescent, and the adult of any age. Little wonder then that developmental biologists (embryologists in bygone days) have contributed so much to our understanding of cancer's origin. Indeed, the first coherent view of cancer was painted by the great embryologist Theodor Boveri in his heuristic volume of 1914 on the origin of cancer. Having observed the developmental aberrations of sea urchin embryos that can follow upon abnormalities of centrosome number and of the segregation of chromosomes, he associated causally the already known phenomenon of centrosome abnormalities of cancer with the latter's histopathology. He further posited that such pathology could be attributed to a single chromosomally aberrant cell.
-
[
J Leukoc Biol,
1996]
The recognition that apoptosis is regulated by an evolutionarily conserved set of polypeptides from the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans to humans suggests that a conserved set of biochemical mechanisms may also he involved in the response. Work from a number of independent laboratories suggests that alterations in cytosolic Ca2+ homeostasis represent one such candidate mechanism, and molecular targets for Ca2+ are now being identified. This review will summarize what is known about the role of Ca2+ in the regulation of apoptosis and discuss how Ca2+ might interact with some of the other biochemical signals implicated in cell death.
-
[
Trends in Ecology & Evolution,
1999]
In a recent TREE news & comment, Gadagkar made some useful comments on LaMunyon and Ward's interesting study on sexual reproduction in nematodes. I think, however, that he - and LaMunyon and Ward - have confused the benefits of sex for species or demes with those for individuals or genes. For females and hermaphrodites (but not for species or demes), the twofold cost of sexual reproduction or producing males' in Maynard Smith's sense implies the cost of producing offspring that have only half of the hermaphrodite parent's genome set - not directly that of producing males. An offspring of a hermaphrodite Caenorhabditis briggsae inherits half, not more, of each parental genome set. The hermaphrodite parent still pays the two fold cost of sexual reproduction in the same way as
-
[
Trends in Biochemical Sciences,
1999]
Stromatin, also known as band 7.2b protein, is one of the major integral membrane proteins of human erythrocytes. This protein is apparently absent in the red cell membranes of patients suffering form overhydrated hereditary stomatocytosis, a form of autosomal dominant hemolytic anemia. Although he protein is missing, no mutations have been found within the stomatin gene in patients with this condition. However, an aberrant splice mutation associated with multi-system pathology early in life suggests that the protein is crucial for development (A. Argent, J. Delaunay and G. Stewart, pers. commun.). the genome of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans encodes nine stomatin-related genes, three of which have been genetically characterized. MEC-2 is a protein expressed predominantly in six touch-receptor neurons and plays an essential role in mechanotransduction, whereas UNC-24 is required for normal locomotion. UNC-1 also affects locomotion and is required for normal responsiveness to volatile anesthetics.
-
[
Studies of History & Philosophy of Science,
1998]
In 1963, just a year after the researchers of the Medical Research Council (MRC) Unit of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, joined by some other research groups, has moved from various scattered and makeshift buildings in the courtyard of the Physics Department to a lavishly funded four-storey laboratory, B. Lush, the Principal Medical Officer of the MRC, came to inquire about their plans for future expansion. He indicated that the MRC wished to build the laboratory up to what the principal researchers considered its 'final size' until their retirement, which meant planning ahead for at least 15 years. This surprising move was doubtless prompted by the recent award of the Nobel Prize to three members of the laboratory, Max Perutz, John Kendrew and Francis Crick, for their work on the molecular structure of proteins and nucleic acids. The triple award had propelled the new Laboratory of Molecular Biology into the limelight, and the MRC was interested in securing optimal research conditions for this prestigious group of researchers.
-
[
Annu Rev Phytopathol,
1990]
In the last 20 years a scientific community has evolved to exploit the soil nematode Caenorhabditis elegans as a model system for studying how an animal's genes specify its development and behavior. Initially, a great deal of descriptive work was needed to define these processes, and now the information is being used to design and interpret experiments aimed at understanding the basic mechanisms underlying cellular function. The number of investigators studying this nematode has grown exponentially, so that more than 1000 papers on Caenorhabditis appeared in the literature by the end of 1988. A total of 90 papers were published from 1950-1970, aimed primarily at understanding the growth and physiology of this nematode. By contrast, nearly 100 research papers and reviews were published in 1989 alone, and in the decade ahead more will be learned about C. elegans than all other nematodes combined. The adoption of this organism by Sydney Brenner in 1965 as a laboratory model to study the nervous system was the key development. He trained many of the leading researchers in the field, and his influence is reflected in virtually every aspect of the biology of C. elegans.