Roundworms Caenorhabditis elegans

First, the total number of protein-coding genes does not correlate in any simple way with standard conceptions about animal complexity (see Figure 9-34). Humans, for instance, have only about 1.75 times as many genes as the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans. Likewise, C. elegans has about 1.4 times as many genes as the fruit fly Drosophila, which exhibits a much more complex body plan and more complex behavior. 

A number of genomes are available online, along with software for sequence comparisons. An example is the material available from the Sanger Institute (http //www.sanger.ac.uk). In November 2003, the researchers at this institute announced that they had sequenced 2 billion bases from the DNA of several organisms (human, mouse, zebrafish, yeasts, and the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans, among others). If this amount of DNA were the size of a spiral staircase, it would reach from the Earth to the Moon. 

Roundworms, especially parasitic roundworms, can be inhibited by alkaloids. A lot of roundworms are, however, very active in producing different chemical molecules. For example, a roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans contain a lot of active enzymes . Millipedes are not researched in relation to their content of metabolomics and especially their internal alkaloids. The alkaloids are at least in the skin of their segmented body. However, external bioactive alkaloids can inhibit their development. 

Vozdek R, Kozich V. A roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans possesses a large number of H2S producing enzymes. Nitric Oxide 2013 31(2) S58. 

Several equations were developed to predict the toxicity of arsenic and its derivatives using one global chemical reactivity parameter (either electrophihcity or the number of nonhydrogen atoms) and two local parameters (phihcity and atomic charge on the arsenic atom). A training set of metal ions was used, along with a set of experimental toxicity values of these ions in the roundworm, Caenorhabditis elegans, to develop equations to predict the toxicity of arsenic (R =0.865 to 0.963). 

The roundworms (Nematoda)127 129 have, in addition to the enteron (alimentary tract), a separate body cavity. Free-living nematodes abound in water and soil but many species are parasitic. They do enormous damage to plants and to some animal species. Trichina, hookworms1293, and filaria worms attack humans. However, in the laboratory the 1-mm-long, 810-cell nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans (Fig. 1-14) has become an important animal. In 1963 Sydney Brenner launched what has become a worldwide effort to make this tiny worm the equivalent in the animal kingdom of... 

Other organisms applied in chemical genomics screens include the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster), and Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans), which is a roundworm. 

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