title: Seeing elegance in gene regulatory networks of the worm.
abstract: There has been a recent explosion in the wealth of genomic data available to C. elegans researchers, as efforts to characterize gene expression and its regulators at a molecular level have borne significant fruit. Detailed measurement of gene expression at a variety of developmental stages, and in numerous individual tissues, has dramatically increased our understanding of cell-type-specific gene expression networks. Characterization of the targets of transcription factors, chromatin-binding proteins, and miRNAs has provided genome-wide insights into the mechanisms governing gene expression. Development of new techniques have allowed this characterization to begin to shift from whole-organism studies to tissue-level, and even single-cell-level profiling, creating a first glimpse into gene regulatory circuits at the single-cell level in a living organism. Integration of these datasets has yielded novel insights into evolution, gene expression regulation, and the link between sequence and phenotype.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Eric L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Van Nostrand
authors.forename: Stuart K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D002843:Chromatin / Q000378:metabolism; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks; D049751:Genome, Helminth; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D049490:Systems Biology; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D002843:Chromatin; D035683:MicroRNAs; D014157:Transcription Factors