Comparative Transcriptomics of Steinernema and Caenorhabditis Single Embryos Reveals Orthologous Gene Expression Convergence during Late Embryogenesis.

Cells express distinct sets of genes in a precise spatio-temporal manner during embryonic development. There is a wealth of information on the deterministic embryonic development of Caenorhabditis elegans, but much less is known about embryonic development in nematodes from other taxa, especially at the molecular level. We are interested in insect pathogenic nematodes from the genus Steinernema as models of parasitism and symbiosis as well as a satellite model for evolution in comparison to C.