Caenorhabditis elegans Culture

Diane Carol Shakes, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, USA

Published online: April 2001

DOI: 10.1038/npg.els.0002575

The nematode worm, Caenorhabditis elegans, has rapidly become one of the premier model organisms for biomedical research. A number of the worm's attributes – including its small size, rapid life cycle and tolerance for cryogenic freezing – enable researchers to maintain and study literally millions of worms and hundreds of mutant strains within a small research laboratory.

Keywords: caenorhabditis elegans; stock maintenance; animal handling

Figure 1. Life cycle of Caenorhabditis elegans. The duration at each stageat 25°C is indicated.
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 References
    Brenner S (1974) The genetics of Caenorhabditis elegans. Genetics 77: 71–94.
    C. elegans Sequencing Consortium (1998) Genome sequence of the nematode C. elegans: A platform for investigating biology. Science 282: 2012–2018.
    book Caldicott IM, Larsen PL and Riddle DL (1994) "Laboratory culture of Caenorhabditis elegans and other free-living nematodes". In: Celis JE (ed.) Cell Biology: A Laboratory Handbook. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
    Chalfie M, Tu Y, Euskirchen G, Ward WW and Prasher DC (1994) Green fluorescent protein as a marker for gene expression. Science 263: 802–805.
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 Further Reading
    book Epstein HF and Shakes DC (eds) (1995) Methods in Cell Biology, vol. 48: Caenorhabditis elegans: Modern Biological Analysis of an Organism. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
    other Silverman HS et al. (1997) Comprehensive Protocol Collection. ePath www.dartmouth.edu/artsci/bio/ambros/protocols.html.

Please note this article is up to date as of August 2010, when it was reviewed by the editors and author.

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Article Title: Caenorhabditis elegans Culture
 
How to Cite close
Shakes, Diane Carol(Apr 2001) Caenorhabditis elegans Culture. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1038/npg.els.0002575]