Characterization of genetic enhancers of ksr-1 lethality in C. elegans

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The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is a very powerful genetic model organism for the identification of genes and regulatory systems that mediate the complexities of organism development. Cell proliferation, cell fate specification and morphogenesis must be properly coordinated such that a single cell can develop into a multicellular organism with many tissue types. Cell signaling is essential for cells to communicate and coordinate their actions during development. A handful signaling pathways are highly conserved across metazoan species from worm to man that are used repeatedly during development. Our lab is using C. elegans to understand how one such pathway is differentially regulated in different cell types and at different stages of development. Such studies will provides us with new paradigms by which we can understand how signaling during development is regulated. Furthermore, they provide new potential drug targets for the development of pharmaceuticals.