Wnt signaling in C. elegans, both canonical and non-canonical, governs cell polarity and asymmetric cell divisions that ultimately affect endoderm specification, vulva and gonad development, neuroblast migration, neuron branching and outgrowth, formation of the postdeirid sensilla and male tail ray and spicule formation (see WormBook chapters on Wnt signaling for reviews). For the WS246 and WS247 releases of WormBase, WormBase curators have focused on curating papers directly relevant to Wnt signaling in C. elegans. This curation includes Wnt-related genetic and regulatory interactions, anatomy function, mutant phenotypes (by allele and RNAi), expression patterns, Gene Ontology annotations, and cross-species gene orthology and gene models for other nematode species.
New in WS246: Automatically generated gene descriptions
WormBase has been writing concise descriptions of genes that appear in the Overview widget of the gene page. Written in prose, these descriptions provide a quick overview of gene function. Since the process of manually writing gene descriptions is a relatively slow process, many genes lacked such descriptions.
A new experimental tool at WormBase aims to fill these gaps by automatically creating gene descriptions which are visible in the Overview widget of gene pages. The semi-automated process of generating these descriptions relies on pre-existing orthology and Gene Ontology annotations (biological process, molecular function, and cellular component) in WormBase. This process offers a broad coverage for genes lacking manually drafted descriptions.
New Features for WS246
Human Disease Data Update
As part of WormBase efforts to curate genes that are potential models for inherited human diseases, 867 genes have been predicted as potential disease genes. In addition curation efforts added publications on experiments using C.elegans genes to investigate human genetic diseases to 181 genes. And 244 genes have been identified from publications as being relevant to research in that field.
WormBase curates human disease relevance data by designating genes as ‘Experimental models’ for a specific human disease based on experimental data published in the literature. In addition to manual curation, an automated data pipeline designates genes as ‘Potential models’ based on orthology with the human gene. Detailed text descriptions called ‘Human disease relevance’ descriptions describe how the elegans gene is a genetic model for the human disease. All human disease relevant data can be found in the ‘Human Diseases’ widget and in the ‘Overview’ section on gene pages.
WormBase Service Interruption: 25 December 2014 [complete]
In order to perform service and security upgrades, WormBase will be operating at reduced capacity and be periodically unavailable between the hours of 12PM to 4PM ET (GMT -5). We apologize in advance for the inconvenience.
The upgrade has been completed. All services are now back online. We apologize for the disruption.
Anthelmintic drug chapter updated in WormBook
Dear WormBook reader,
Anthelmintic drugs and nematicides: studies in Caenorhabditis elegans, by Lindy Holden-Dye and Robert Walker, has been added to the Disease models and drug discovery section. This chapter updates the 2007 chapter, Anthelmintic drugs, also by Holden-Dye and Walker. This chapter discusses the use of C. elegans as a model ‘parasite’, and reviews its use in the study of nematode control and as a platform for anthelmintic and nematicide discovery and development.
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