Center for Caenorhabditis Elegans Anatomy

描述(申请人提供)：线虫，秀丽线虫，已被鉴定为细胞发育的“高连通性”动物。这种非常小、简单的动物因其优异的遗传学和可获得的细胞生物学而被广泛用于实验研究。蠕虫的完整基因组已经公布，成虫的大部分解剖结构已经从连续薄片的电子显微镜照片中重建出来。然而，线虫群落并没有广泛使用EM技术，而且以前的大多数EM数据都不容易访问。线虫解剖中心专注于1)以带注释的电子显微镜和光学显微照片的形式发布关于线虫解剖的详细信息，这些信息可以在我们的两个网站WormAtlas(基于文本的)和Wormlmage(图像数据库)上获得，也可以通过ftp、硬盘驱动器和图书形式获得，如线虫地图集。该中心2)为学生和博士后提供现代EM方法的实践培训，3)测试线虫的新EM方法。我们还对关键发育阶段的野生类型解剖进行了新的EM调查，以补充ADAS，并填补我们一般知识的空白。该R24应用程序首次获得资助，该中心于1998年2月开业；我们请求多年的资助，以继续建设我们服务于科学界的能力。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans, has been identified as a "high connectivity" animal for cellular development. This very small, simple animal has been widely adopted for experimental study due to its excellent genetics and accessible cell biology. The complete genome of the worm has been published, and most of the adult anatomy has been reconstructed from electron micrographs of serial thin sections. However, EM techniques are not widely utilized by the C. elegans community, and most previous EM data are not easily accessed. The Center for C. elegans Anatomy concentrates on 1) publishing detailed information regarding the anatomy of the nematode in the form of annotated TEM and light micrographs, available on our two websites WormAtlas (text-based) and Wormlmage (image database), and by ftp, on hard drives, and in book form as the C. elegans Atlas. The Center is 2) providing practical training in modern EM methods for students and postdoc's and 3) testing new EM methods for C. elegans. We also conduct new EM surveys of the wild type anatomy at key developmental stages to supplement the Adas, and to fill gaps in our general knowledge. This R24 application was first funded and the Center opened in Feb. 1998; we request years of funding to continue building our capabilities to serve the scientific community.