The nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans, has been identified as a high connectivity animal for cellular development. This very small, simple animal has been widely adopted for experimental study due to its excellent genetics and accessible cell biology. The complete genome of the worm has been published, and most of the adult anatomy has been reconstructed from electron micrographs of serial thin sections. However, EM techniques are not widely utilized by the C. elegans community, and most previous EM data are not easily accessed. The Center for C. elegans Anatomy concentrates on 1) publishing detailed information regarding the anatomy of the nematode in the form of annotated TEM and light micrographs, available on our two websites WormAtlas (text-based) and Wormlmage (image database), and by ftp, on hard drives, and in book form as the C. elegans Atlas. The Center is 2) providing practical training in modern EM methods for students and postdoc's and 3) testing new EM methods for C. elegans. We also conduct new EM surveys of the wild type anatomy at key developmental stages to supplement the Adas, and to fill gaps in our general knowledge. This R24 application was first funded and the Center opened in Feb. 1998; we request years of funding to continue building our capabilities to serve the scientific community.

Public Health Relevance

Many disease-related gene sequences are known in the C. elegans genome; the TEM pathology of genetic mutations in nematode is often helpful in discovering the function of equivalent gene products in man. Studies in this laboratory have uncovered basic mechanisms related to development of the brain, and explored genes involved in several forms of cell death, including apoptosis, necrosis and autophagy.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Office of The Director, National Institutes of Health (OD)
Type
Resource-Related Research Projects (R24)
Project #
5R24OD010943-18
Application #
8918757
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZOD1)
Program Officer
Zou, Sige
Project Start
1998-02-01
Project End
2015-08-31
Budget Start
2015-03-02
Budget End
2015-08-31
Support Year
18
Fiscal Year
2015
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Department
Neurosciences
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
110521739
City
Bronx
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
10461
Clark, James F; Meade, Michael; Ranepura, Gehan et al. (2018) Caenorhabditis elegans DBL-1/BMP Regulates Lipid Accumulation via Interaction with Insulin Signaling. G3 (Bethesda) 8:343-351
Gibson, Chelsea L; Balbona, Joseph T; Niedzwiecki, Ashlin et al. (2018) Glial loss of the metallo ?-lactamase domain containing protein, SWIP-10, induces age- and glutamate-signaling dependent, dopamine neuron degeneration. PLoS Genet 14:e1007269
Mutlu, Beste; Chen, Huei-Mei; Moresco, James J et al. (2018) Regulated nuclear accumulation of a histone methyltransferase times the onset of heterochromatin formation in C. elegans embryos. Sci Adv 4:eaat6224
Al-Hashimi, Hikmat; Hall, David H; Ackley, Brian D et al. (2018) Tubular Excretory Canal Structure Depends on Intermediate Filaments EXC-2 and IFA-4 in Caenorhabditis elegans. Genetics 210:637-652
Soulavie, Fabien; Hall, David H; Sundaram, Meera V (2018) The AFF-1 exoplasmic fusogen is required for endocytic scission and seamless tube elongation. Nat Commun 9:1741
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Melentijevic, Ilija; Toth, Marton L; Arnold, Meghan L et al. (2017) C. elegans neurons jettison protein aggregates and mitochondria under neurotoxic stress. Nature 542:367-371
O'Hagan, Robert; Silva, Malan; Nguyen, Ken C Q et al. (2017) Glutamylation Regulates Transport, Specializes Function, and Sculpts the Structure of Cilia. Curr Biol 27:3430-3441.e6
Qadota, Hiroshi; Matsunaga, Yohei; Nguyen, Ken C Q et al. (2017) High-resolution imaging of muscle attachment structures in Caenorhabditis elegans. Cytoskeleton (Hoboken) 74:426-442
Boateng, Ruby; Nguyen, Ken C Q; Hall, David H et al. (2017) Novel functions for the RNA-binding protein ETR-1 in Caenorhabditis elegans reproduction and engulfment of germline apoptotic cell corpses. Dev Biol 429:306-320

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