a C. elegans adult hermaphrodite

Why do we know so much about C. elegans?

C. elegans was chosen as a model animal for developmental biology and genetics research by Sydney Brenner in the 1960's. Since then, the ease with which this small animal can be grown in the laboratory, and the ever-expanding range of techniques and tools available for examining development down to the subcellular level, thousands of researchers have been attracted to the C. elegans system.

Caenorhabditis elegans embryonic development is strongly determinitive or mosaic. Most cells in the hatching larva have arisen through invariant cell lineages: that is their origins can be traced back unambiguously to founder blastomeres. This allows the effects of disruption of embryonic development (by physical manipulation or mutation) to be traced with relative ease.

C. elegans has also been developed as a model for genomics. C. elegans is diploid and has five pairs of autosomal chromosomes (named I, II, III, IV and V) and a pair of sex chromosomes (X). In total, the genome is 100.2 million base pairs (Mb) in size. Gender is determined by an XX (hermaphrodite) - XO (male) chromosomal system. The commonest lab strain, and the designated "wild type" strain, is called N2. The entire genome has been sequenced to completion, which means that for any gene or mutation, it is possible to track down the changes to the level of individual base pairs in the chromosomes. homozygous.