WormBook chapter on gene structures in C.elegans updated

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Dear WormBook reader,

Overview of gene structure in C. elegans, by John Spieth, Daniel Lawson, Paul Davis, Gary Williams, and Kevin Howe, has just been added to the Genetics and genomics and Molecular biology sections of WormBook. This chapter updates Overview of gene structure, by John Spieth and Daniel Lawson, originally published in 2005. The updated chapter describes some of the ways in which gene structures are currently curated in WormBase, primarily focusing on transcribed regions of genes, and also includes an updated description of non-coding RNA genes.

Please proceed to read this chapter and others on nematode biology at http://www.wormbook.org/. If you have any comments or suggestions, please submit them via the Feedback page on wormbook.org.

Thank you for your interest in WormBook.

Jane

new Worm Breeder's Gazette out

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Dear Worm Researcher,

Volume 20, Number 2 of The Worm Breeder’s Gazette has been published. This issue highlights genome editing and includes 4 articles describing improvements in CRISPR/Cas9 technology, web resources useful for those experiments, and links to published papers in the field. The issue also includes descriptions of other useful tools for the worm community, a caution about the potential effects of bacto-peptone on worm behavior, and several other research summaries. There are also worm humor articles, worm art, and new lab announcements.

Please proceed to http://www.wormbook.org/wbg/ to view the latest issue of the Gazette.

Best regards,

Jane Mendel
Editor, WormBook

WormBook chapter on Q neuroblast migration published

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Dear WormBook reader,

Development and migration of the C. elegans Q neuroblasts and their descendants by Teije Middelkoop and Rik Korswagen has been added to the Developmental control section of WormBook. This chapter describes the complex mechanisms that control the establishment of the left/right asymmetry in the Q neuroblasts and the migration of their descendants.

Please proceed to read this chapter and others on nematode biology at www.wormbook.org. If you have any comments or suggestions, please submit them via the Feedback page.

Thank you for your interest in WormBook.

Jane

IWM2015 Workshop Proposals deadline approaching

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Proposals are being solicited for the 20th International C. elegans Meeting. Workshops can be based on a specific scientific area, a technical approach applicable to various research topics, community resources, educational issues, or other topics of interest to the worm community. The deadline for submissions is November 15, 2014.

Announcing WormBase ParaSite

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Parasitic worms (helminths) are responsible for more than a billion human infections globally and have a devastating impact on livestock and agriculture. As international efforts to sequence the genomes of parasitic helminths gather pace, the WormBase groups at EMBL-EBI and Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute have collaborated on the creation of a new BBSRC-funded resource, WormBase ParaSite, to analyse, store and present information on these genomes. WormBase ParaSite is closely integrated with and complementary to the main WormBase web-site, the central mission of which is to support researchers using Caenorhabditis elegans as a model system.

The first release of WormBase ParaSite includes annotated genomes from 82 species (57 nematodes and 25 platyhelminths), with features including:

  • A genome browser for every genome
  • Comparative analysis (gene orthology and paralogy) using the Ensembl Compara Gene Tree inference method
  • Full text and sequence search (BLAST) services

Development in the coming months will see improved cross-linking to and from the main WormBase site, incorporation of new genomes and data sets, and new querying interfaces and tools oriented towards the use-cases of parasitologists.