Bürglin T R, Lobos E, Blaxter M L
Department of Cell Biology, Biozentrum, University of Basel, Switzerland.
Int J Parasitol. 1998 Mar;28(3):395-411. doi: 10.1016/s0020-7519(97)00208-7.
Caenorhabditis elegans has become a popular model system for genetic and molecular research, since it is easy to maintain and has a very fast life-cycle. Its genome is small and a virtually complete physical map in the form of cosmids and YAC clones exists. Thus it was chosen as a model system by the Genome Project for sequencing, and it is expected that by 1998 the complete sequence (100 million bp) will be available. The accumulated wealth of information about C. elegans should be a boon for nematode parasitologists, as many aspects of gene regulation and function can be studied in this simple model system. A large array of techniques is available to study many aspects of C. elegans biology. In combination with genome projects for parasitic nematodes, conserved genes can be identified rapidly. We expect many new areas of fertile research that will lead to new insights in helminth parasitology, which are based not only on the information gained from C. elegans per se, but also from its use as a heterologous system to study parasitic genes.
秀丽隐杆线虫已成为遗传和分子研究中一种受欢迎的模式生物，因为它易于饲养且生命周期非常短。它的基因组很小，并且存在以黏粒和酵母人工染色体（YAC）克隆形式呈现的几乎完整的物理图谱。因此，它被基因组计划选为测序的模式生物，预计到1998年将获得完整序列（1亿碱基对）。关于秀丽隐杆线虫积累的大量信息对线虫寄生虫学家来说应该是一件幸事，因为在这个简单的模式系统中可以研究基因调控和功能的许多方面。有大量技术可用于研究秀丽隐杆线虫生物学的许多方面。结合寄生线虫的基因组计划，可以快速鉴定保守基因。我们期望有许多新的富有成果的研究领域，这将为蠕虫寄生虫学带来新的见解，这些见解不仅基于从秀丽隐杆线虫本身获得的信息，还基于将其用作研究寄生基因的异源系统所获得的信息。
