? This is a request for a three-year supplement to our ongoing Center grant, in order to meet the increased need to build our WormAtlas Website (www.wormatlas.org) in an expeditious manner. Website development was one of the original aims of our Center grant, as outlined in our 1997 application. The investigators intend to keep this as a central feature of the grant, but require additional funds in order to hire technical staff, especially an Illustrator, a Data Curator and a Programmer for the Center. The required staffing for Aim 3 greatly exceeds the initial estimates. ? ? The nematode, Caenorhabditis (C.) elegans has been identified as a """"""""high connectivity"""""""" animal for cellular development. This very small 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 (EM) 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 extending EM methods in C. elegans, particularly to: (1) study cellular changes during normal development and in mutant animals; (2) conduct ? EM-immunocytochemical methods to localize antigens at the ultrastructural level; (3) the Center is publishing more detailed information regarding the anatomy of the nematode in the form of annotated electron micrographs, available on the Worm Atlas Website, and on CD-ROMs, by ftp, and eventually in book form; (4) The Anatomy Center houses a large Archive of transmission EM data for the wild type animal and for many mutants. Where necessary, the Center is adding new data to the wild type archive to fill in gaps of knowledge of the adult and larval tissues. This Archive is the source of illustrations for the Atlas project, and is open to visiting scientists for study; (5) the Center provides training in EM methods to visiting students, so that more C. elegans laboratories can conduct their own EM studies; and (6) new and improved methods for EM study of the nematode are under development, and are promulgated to the community. ? ?
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