As we worked on C.elegans in the context of the Stargate WCC project, we wanted to focus on it as a safe and very relevant model organism. C.elegans is subject to many researches and great discoveries. This model organism was first developed by Sydney Brenner 50 years ago as a genetic model for understanding questions of developmental biology and neurobiology. Currently, diverse areas modern biology including studies of the basic functions and interactions of eukaryotic cells, host-parasite interactions, and evolution use the model C.elegans. It is also a relevant model to study processes in many human diseases. As we studied unc-60, a gene involved in the muscular development in C.elegans, it was very important to see if the phenomenon observed in worms could have perspectives in medical research linked to muscular deficiency for exemple.
Why is C.elegans such an outstanding experimental model ?C.elegans has many advantages as its small size, rapid life cycle, transparency, and well-annotated genome. These properties allow scientists to work on biological problems on a genetic point of view, using forward and reverse genetics, from a single cell of the worm to its whole organism. However C.elegans is not only useful in research laboratories, it is also a great organism to show at school life in cells and tissues. Sydney Brenner brought this organism in the lab in 1974. He decided to study it because of the ease of genetic manipulation.
What are the properties that allow easy genetic manipulations? Is there any limit to these properties ?Among the C.elegans, we can find hermaphrodites and males. Hermaphrodites allow self-fertilization. This way, when an hermaphrodite worm is mutagenized, the mutation can be maintained through self propagation in following progenies without mating with males.
C.elegans takes around 3 days at 25° to develop from fertilized aggs to adult worms that can produce their own fertilized eggs.
We can preserve C.elegans mutant strains.
It helps study of cells and developmental biology. Scientists can make analysis at the level of a single cell within the context of the whole living organism. It also enables studies in living organisms requiring fluorescent protein reporters. Thanks to transparency, optogenetic tools can also be effective in C.elegans, with many applications in the nervous system.
They cannot grow in humans because our body temperature is to high