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[
Nature,
2000]
A tiny RNA molecule ensures that the larvae of a roundworm develop into adults. The discovery of this RNA in many other animal groups implies that this way of keeping developmental time may be universal.
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[
Nat Cell Biol,
2010]
Recognition of apoptotic cells by phagocytic cells in Caenorhabditis elegans has been something of a mystery. A secreted transthyretin-like protein, TTR-52, has been identified as a bridging molecule between apoptotic cells and CED-1 on the phagocytic cells that engulf them.
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[
Nature,
1988]
For myosin to function properly in muscle, its bipolar filaments must be assembled in ordered arrays. A major problem facing cell biologists is the control of local assembly of the filaments. Within non-muscle cells, the filaments are continually assembling and disassembling according to local signals. In muscle cells, however, myosin must be turning over continuously within a permanent array and, therefore, the cells must be replacing myosin subunits or whole filaments in an organized fashion. Two different approaches have now been applied to find out how this is achieved. The first is a classical genetic approach in which mutants of the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans with incorrect myosin assembly are isolated; and the second is by inducing expression of portions of the myosin molecule in bacteria. The differences in the information about myosin filament assembly provided by these two methods offer a nice contrast between genetic and molecular-biology approaches to a cell biology problem. Analysis of mutants reveals behaviours requiring molecular explanations, whereas the expression of pieces of the molecule gives information
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[
Nature,
1992]
Induction is the process in development in which the fate of one cell mass is determined by another. A simple example occurs during vulval development in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans: a gonadal cell called the anchor cell induces three neighbouring cells to embark on a programme of cell division and morphogenesis, which culminates, in a few hours, in the formation of a vulva. On page 470 of this issue, Hill and Sternberg report strong evidence that they have identified the anchor-cell signalling molecule, which they find is a member of the EGF (epidermal growth factor) group of growth factors.
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[
Science,
1996]
Geoffrey Gold, a physiologist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, had wanted for years to put to rest a nagging question: How do odors trigger olfactory neurons to fire off action potentials to the brain? The dogma for the past 5 years had been that odors fall into two catagories, each of which acts via a different inracellular messenger molecule. But Gold believed this view was wrong, and that all odors work by increasing the production of the intracellular messenger cyclic AMP (cAMP). One day last spring, Gold got a phone call out of the blue from neurobiologist John Ngai, at the University of California (UC), Berkeley, offering the possibility of answering this question. It was my dream come true," says Gold. ......