Moreover, Brenner (1974) further suggested that C. elegans is suitable for aging research since it can be easily and cheaply grown in large quantities in the laboratory, particularly when identifying long-lived mutants. C. elegans also have a relatively short and invariant lifespan, identification of mutants which shorten or lengthen average lifespan by a little as 10–15% is possible. Additionally, with the entire genome sequenced and annotated, availability of an RNAi library comprising approx. 80% of the genes, the ease of generating transgenic strains and the recent development of gene-targeting approaches make use of C. elegans advantageous in aging research. These features have allowed for extensive forward and reverse genetic screens for genes that modulate lifespan in C. elegans (Tissenbaum, 2015). Another advantage of using C. elegans in understanding the aging process is that the lifespan assay is straightforward, which allows for large numbers of worms to be examined in a single experiment. This allows testing for statistical significance in addition to the analysis of mortality rates. Together, these methods allow one to broadly survey the worm genome for genes that moderate lifespan. This has…show more content…
elegans as model organism for aging studies. The worms have a simple body plan, and lack many defined organs/tissues including a brain, blood, a defined fat cell, internal organs, and is evolutionarily distant from humans. Moreover, the worms’ size (1 mm) makes biochemistry studies more challenging. Some ways to study tissue- specific signaling existed but might not be straightforward and are difficult to perform. By this, immunoprecipitation, microarray, biochemistry, and chromatin immunoprecipitation are usually performed on whole worm extracts of either mixed-stage animals or animals at a similar growth stage. Finally, C. elegans cell culture is limited with no system equivalent to Drosophila S2 cells (Tissenbaum,
elegans as model organism for aging studies. The worms have a simple body plan, and lack many defined organs/tissues including a brain, blood, a defined fat cell, internal organs, and is evolutionarily distant from humans. Moreover, the worms’ size (1 mm) makes biochemistry studies more challenging. Some ways to study tissue- specific signaling existed but might not be straightforward and are difficult to perform. By this, immunoprecipitation, microarray, biochemistry, and chromatin immunoprecipitation are usually performed on whole worm extracts of either mixed-stage animals or animals at a similar growth stage. Finally, C. elegans cell culture is limited with no system equivalent to Drosophila S2 cells (Tissenbaum,
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