Caenorhabditis elegans: an emerging genetic model for the study of innate immunity.
Invaluable insights into how animals, humans included, defend themselves against infection have been provided by more than a decade of genetic studies that have used fruitflies. In the past few years, attention has also turned to another simple animal model, the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans. What exactly have we learned from the work in Drosophila? And will research with C. elegans teach us anything new about our response to pathogen attack?
Centre d'Immunologie de Marseille Luminy, INSERM/CNRS/Université de la Méditerranée, Case 906, 13288 Marseille Cedex 9, France.
C Léopold
CL
Kurz
Jonathan J
JJ
Ewbank
D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000276:immunology*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000276:immunology; D007113:Immunity, Innate / Q000235:genetics; D008957:Models, Genetic; D015398:Signal Transduction