Hengartner MO (1995) Science "Pharmacia Biotech & Science prize. Grand prize winner. Life and death decisions: ced-9 and programmed cell death in Caenorhabditis elegans."

Hengartner MO

[Science, 1995]

Programmed cell death (PCD), or apoptosis, is a conserved terminal differentiation program that multicellular organisms have evolved to get rid of cells that are not needed, that are in the way, or that are potentially dangerous. PCD can be equated with cell suicide in the sense that the dying cell plays an active role in promoting its own demise and removal from the organism.

de Chadarevian S (2000) Hist Philos Life Sci "Mapping development or how molecular is molecular biology?"

de Chadarevian S

[Hist Philos Life Sci, 2000]

The transformation of embryology to developmental biology has been linked to the introduction of experimental approaches from molecular genetics to the study of development. This paper pursues this theme by analyzing the tools molecular biologists, moving from phage and bacterial genetics to the study of development in higher organisms, brought to their new field of investigations. The paper focuses on Sydney Brenner's move from molecular genetics to developmental biology. His attempt to turn the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans into a new tool for the study of development included a vast and ever expanding mapping program. Worm workers themselves did not distinguish sharply between mapping on the cellular, chromosomal or molecular level. Mapping, the paper argues, or more generally 'analytical/comparative' next to 'experimentalist' approaches (Pickstone) were not only part and parcel of Brenner's strategy to 'molecularize' the study of development, but also played a crucial role in 'classical' molecular biology.

Marx J (2002) Science "Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Tiny worm takes a star turn."

Marx J

[Science, 2002]

The nematode worm known as Caenorhabditis elegans is not much to look at. Just a millimeter long and transparent to boot, it is almost invisible to the naked eye. But in biological research the tiny worm looms large, providing a model system for studying everything from embryonic development to aging. Now, three researchers who pioneered the use of C. elegans as a model organism have won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Hodgkin JA (1989) Genetics "Early worms."

Hodgkin JA

[Genetics, 1989]

Just over 21 years ago, in October of 1967, Sydney Brenner soaked a culture of hermaphroditic nematodes of the species Caenorhabditis elegans in a solution of ethyl methane sulfonate. A week later, examining their F2 descendants, he noticed a short, "dumpy" animal among the long, thin wild-type worms. The dumpy animal was picked to a separate culture plate and allowed to produce self-progeny, which were also dumpy: it was a true-breeding mutant. The new strain was given the name E1. Crosses with the parental wild-type strain showed that the mutant phenotype was due to a single autosomal recessive mutation - in modern nomenclature, allele e1 of the gene dpy-1.