nematodes the worm and its relatives线虫蠕虫及其亲属.pdfVIP

Essay Nematodes: The Worm and Its Relatives Mark Blaxter* Institute of Evolutionary Biology, The University of Edinburgh, Ashworth Laboratories, Edinburgh, United Kingdom Browse recently published articles in embryos. C. elegans embryos undergo a chromosomes). Importantly, these mutants most issues of leading journals, and there stereotypical pattern of cleavage from the include several that affect development, will be mention of ‘‘the worm’’. What is just-fertilised zygote to the emerging first changing or deleting the fates of cells in this worm, why is it so keenly studied by so stage larva, such that (with a few impor- the lineage. From these small, promising many, and what has it told us about the tant exceptions) the cell lineage is invariant beginnings, a worldwide community of C. diversity of life? And why this worm, and [4–6]. For each cell in any embryo, it is elegans researchers grew, using mutagenesis not one of the many other worms? possible to say with certainty where it and careful developmental and biological came from (which cells in earlier embryos analyses to reveal the genetic underpin- Caenorhabditis elegans Is the were its progenitors) and which cells (and nings of development, neurosensation, Worm tissues) the cell would contribute to the ageing, and many other phenotypes. The mature animal. C. elegans research field has been openly The worm is Caenorhabditis ele