Project :: Modulation of gene expression by mutation and RNA interference
Introduction
The essentially complete DNA sequence of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans in December 1998 (Science, 1998:Vol. 282. no. 5396, p. 2011, Jonathan Hodgkin et al) was a landmark for biomedical research. For the first time, scientists obtained the nearly complete genetic information for an animal. The C. elegans genome consists of about 97 million base pairs, approximately one-thirtieth of the human genome, packaged into 6 chromosomes containing about 19,000 genes, which match those of other organims, including humans to about 50%. During its 2- to 3-week life span the tiny C. elegans round worm (maximum length 1.2 millimeters) carries out many of the same processes as humans by undergoing a series of divisions to form complex tissues and organ systems.
C. elegans is an extremely powerful model organism as it allows advanced genetic analysis and complete descriptions of its cellular anatomy, cell lineage, and neuronal diagram. It is particularly useful for studying early development, neurobiology, and aging, processes with parallels to humans. Furthermore, studying the effects of inhibiting genes and for isolating mutations in any gene will greatly facilitate sequence-based gene analysis. The combination of the complete genome sequence with these and other methods will allow investigation of yet unknown gene functions in order to apply the obtained knowdlege to the human setting.
The aim of our project was to learn and apply methods which allow researcher to modulate gene expression in order to characterize the function of any gene in the genome. Moreover, it aimed to introduce the model organism C. elegans and its handling to the participants.
Download
Download full report.
Wormies: Antun Sablek, Christine Parusel, Sherry Yu and Dora Stern Vukotic. See more photos.
|
