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

线虫秀丽线虫是一种非常强大的遗传模式生物，用于识别调节生物发育复杂性的基因和调控系统。细胞增殖、细胞命运指定和形态发生必须适当协调，以使单个细胞能够发育成具有多种组织类型的多细胞生物体。细胞信号对于细胞在发育过程中进行交流和协调它们的行为是必不可少的。一些信号通路在从蠕虫到人的后生动物物种中高度保守，在发育过程中重复使用。我们的实验室正在使用线虫来了解一种这样的途径如何在不同的细胞类型和不同的发育阶段受到不同的调节。这样的研究将为我们提供新的范式，通过这些范式，我们可以理解发育过程中的信号转导是如何调节的。此外，它们还为药物开发提供了新的潜在药物靶点。

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.