Small molecule inhibitors of α-synuclein oligomers identified by targeting early dopamine-mediated motor impairment in C. elegans.

Background: Parkinson's disease is a disabling neurodegenerative movement disorder characterized by dopaminergic neuron loss induced by α-synuclein oligomers. There is an urgent need for disease-modifying therapies for Parkinson's disease, but drug discovery is challenged by lack of in vivo models that recapitulate early stages of neurodegeneration. Invertebrate organisms, such as the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans, provide in vivo models of human disease processes that can be instrumental for initial pharmacological studies.

C. elegans SUP-46, an HNRNPM family RNA-binding protein that prevents paternally-mediated epigenetic sterility.

Background: In addition to DNA, gametes contribute epigenetic information in the form of histones and non-coding RNA. Epigenetic programs often respond to stressful environmental conditions and provide a heritable history of ancestral stress that allows for adaptation and propagation of the species. In the nematode C.

Comparative genomic analysis of upstream miRNA regulatory motifs in Caenorhabditis.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) comprise a class of short noncoding RNA molecules that play diverse developmental and physiological roles by controlling mRNA abundance and protein output of the vast majority of transcripts. Despite the importance of miRNAs in regulating gene function, we still lack a complete understanding of how miRNAs themselves are transcriptionally regulated. To fill this gap, we predicted regulatory sequences by searching for abundant short motifs located upstream of miRNAs in eight species of Caenorhabditis nematodes.

Eggshell chitin and chitin-interacting proteins prevent polyspermy in C. elegans.

Development requires fertilization by a single sperm. In Caenorhabditis elegans, fertilization occurs in a sperm-filled spermatheca, implying the barrier to polyspermy is generated in this compartment. Eggshell chitin synthesis is initiated at fertilization, and chitin is deposited before the zygote exits the spermatheca.