Check out the latest chapter in WormBook in GENETICS–‘Next-Generation Sequencing-Based Approaches for Mutation Mapping and Identification in Caenorhabditis elegans‘ by Maria Doitsidou, Sophie Jarriault and Richard J. Poole.
Call for IWM 2017 Workshops … and Worm Videos
Website: The website for the C. elegans international meeting, 2017 is up.
Workshops: The deadline for proposing a workshop is 15 November 2016: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/celeganswkshp
WormShow: We regret to announce that Morris and Curtis have retired from doing the Worm Show. With the guidance of Ahna Skop we are planning a new format WormShow involving community submissions of videos or other performance art. More details will be available later on the meeting website but in the mean time please think about participating by producing a video!
–Marie-Anne Felix and Andrew Chisholm
Obtain gene data using SimpleMine
You can query certain types of gene data such as expression in tissue and life stage, RNAi phenotypes, allele phenotypes and gene descriptions using the SimpleMine tool. You can paste in a list of gene names of interest or upload a file with gene names.
Check out our new tissue enrichment analysis tool!
Latest chapter of WormBook in GENETICS: Programmed Cell Death During Caenorhabditis elegans Development
Check out the latest chapter of WormBook in GENETICS!
Programmed Cell Death During Caenorhabditis elegans Development
Barbara Conradt, Yi-Chun Wu, Ding Xue
GENETICS August 1, 2016 vol. 203 no. 4 1533-1562; DOI: 10.1534/genetics.115.186247
Abstract
Programmed cell death is an integral component of Caenorhabditis elegans development. Genetic and reverse genetic studies in C. elegans have led to the identification of many genes and conserved cell death pathways that are important for the specification of which cells should live or die, the activation of the suicide program, and the dismantling and removal of dying cells. Molecular, cell biological, and biochemical studies have revealed the underlying mechanisms that control these three phases of programmed cell death. In particular, the interplay of transcriptional regulatory cascades and networks involving multiple transcriptional regulators is crucial in activating the expression of the key death-inducing gene egl-1 and, in some cases, the ced-3 gene in cells destined to die. A protein interaction cascade involving EGL-1, CED-9, CED-4, and CED-3 results in the activation of the key cell death protease CED-3, which is tightly controlled by multiple positive and negative regulators. The activation of the CED-3 caspase then initiates the cell disassembly process by cleaving and activating or inactivating crucial CED-3 substrates; leading to activation of multiple cell death execution events, including nuclear DNA fragmentation, mitochondrial elimination, phosphatidylserine externalization, inactivation of survival signals, and clearance of apoptotic cells. Further studies of programmed cell death in C. elegans will continue to advance our understanding of how programmed cell death is regulated, activated, and executed in general.