Project description:Most organisms have an endogenous circadian clock that is synchronized to environmental signals such as light and temperature. Although circadian rhythms have been described in the nematode C. elegans at the behavioral level, these rhythms appear to be relatively non-robust. Moreover, in contrast to other animal models, no circadian transcriptional rhythms have been identified. Thus, whether this simple nematode contains a bona fide circadian clock remains an open question. We used microarray experiments to identify light- and temperature-regulated transcriptional rhythms in C. elegans, and show that subsets of these transcripts are regulated in a circadian manner. In addition, we find that light and temperature also globally drive the expression of many genes, indicating that C. elegans exhibits systemic responses to these stimuli. Populations of growth-synchronized wild-type C. elegans L1 larvae were entrained for 5 days until adulthood to 12:12 hr light/dark (LD) cycles (500-1000 lux) at a constant temperature of 18°C, or for 4 days to 12:12 hr temperature cycles (25:15°C - warm/cold or WC) in constant darkness. RNA was collected every 4 hrs during the last entrainment and the subsequent free-running days and analyzed via hybridization of Affymetrix GeneChips. L4 larvae were transferred to FUDR-containing plates to inhibit embryonic development.
Project description:Most organisms have an endogenous circadian clock that is synchronized to environmental signals such as light and temperature. Although circadian rhythms have been described in the nematode C. elegans at the behavioral level, these rhythms appear to be relatively non-robust. Moreover, in contrast to other animal models, no circadian transcriptional rhythms have been identified. Thus, whether this simple nematode contains a bona fide circadian clock remains an open question. We used microarray experiments to identify light- and temperature-regulated transcriptional rhythms in C. elegans, and show that subsets of these transcripts are regulated in a circadian manner. In addition, we find that light and temperature also globally drive the expression of many genes, indicating that C. elegans exhibits systemic responses to these stimuli.
Project description:This project aims to identify novel RNA binding proteins in the nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans. Since interactions between RNAs and proteins may be transient, these animals were crosslinked with UV light at 254 nm which promotes the covalent link between proteins and RNAs. After this, polyadenylated mRNAs were purified via oligo(dT) coupled to magentic beads under stringent conditions. Finally, samples were subjected to mass spectrometry analysis. To rule out the possibility of RNA-independent binding we also analysed other samples: i) samples digested with RNase one; ii) samples where we performed competition assays with polyadenylic acid
Project description:Young adult fer-15;fem-1 Caenorhabditis elegans were infected with Staphylococcus aureus for 8 h to determine the transcriptional host response to Staphylococcus aureus. Analysis of differential gene expression in C. elegans young adults exposed to two different bacteria: E. coli strain OP50 (control), wild-type Staphylococcus aureus RN6390. Samples were analyzed at 8 hours after exposure to the different bacteria. These studies identified C. elegans genes induced by pathogen infection. Keywords: response to pathogen infection, innate immunity, host-pathogen interactions