Isolation and culture of larval cells from C. elegans.

Cell culture is an essential tool to study cell function. In C. elegans the ability to isolate and culture cells has been limited to embryonically derived cells.

The molecular and cellular basis of bitter taste in Drosophila.

The extent of diversity among bitter-sensing neurons is a fundamental issue in the field of taste. Data are limited and conflicting as to whether bitter neurons are broadly tuned and uniform, resulting in indiscriminate avoidance of bitter stimuli, or diverse, allowing a more discerning evaluation of food sources. We provide a systematic analysis of how bitter taste is encoded by the major taste organ of the Drosophila head, the labellum.

kin-19/casein kinase Iα has dual functions in regulating asymmetric division and terminal differentiation in C. elegans epidermal stem cells.

Casein Kinase I (CKI) is a conserved component of the Wnt signaling pathway, which regulates cell fate determination in metazoans. We show that post-embryonic asymmetric division and fate specification of C. elegans epidermal stem cells are controlled by a non-canonical Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, involving the β-catenins WRM-1 and SYS-1, and that C.

Temporal and spatial patterning of an organ by a single transcription factor.

During the formation of animal organs, a single regulatory factor can control the majority of cell-fate decisions, but the mechanisms by which this occurs are poorly understood. One such regulator, the nematode transcription factor PHA-4, functions together with various cis-regulatory elements in target genes to regulate spatial and temporal patterning during development of the pharynx.

Developmental timing in C. elegans is regulated by kin-20 and tim-1, homologs of core circadian clock genes.

In Caenorhabditis elegans, heterochronic genes constitute a developmental timer that specifies temporal cell fate selection. The heterochronic gene lin-42 is the C. elegans homolog of Drosophila and mammalian period, key regulators of circadian rhythms, which specify changes in behavior and physiology over a 24 hr day/night cycle.

Control of developmental timing by small temporal RNAs: a paradigm for RNA-mediated regulation of gene expression.

Heterochronic genes control the timing of developmental programs. In C. elegans, two key genes in the heterochronic pathway, lin-4 and let-7, encode small temporally expressed RNAs (stRNAs) that are not translated into protein.