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Developmental Biology Boot Camp

C. elegans

C. elegans anatomy.
C. elegans anatomy. Adapted from: Altun and Hall, 2009.

C. elegans as a model organism. 

Benefits of using C. elegans as a model organism:

  • Short lifecycle : 3 days
  • Transparent: easy to visualize throughout development
  • Manageable number of chromosomes: 6 chromosomes
  • Self propagating hermaphrodites: ~300 genetically similar progeny does not limit research to sample size
  • Invariant cell lineage: exactly 959 somatic cells in each adult worm
  • Germline syncytium: easy to use for transgenics as the cytoplasm is not enclosed until later staged oocytes are produced
  • Cheap & easy maintenance: In lab, C. elegans live on agar coated petri dishes which have a layer of E. coli, which C. elegans feed on.

 

C. elegans are used in research to study:

  • Apoptosis: 131 cells are fated to undergo apoptosis in C. elegans
  • Gene function: human orthologs in C. elegans
  • Congenital heart disease: established model organism to study sarcomeres
  • Kidney disease: human orthologs of kidney-specific genes in C. elegans 
  • Neurological disorders: human orthologs of neurological-specific genes in C. elegans