title: Intermediate Filaments in Caenorhabditis elegans.
abstract: More than 70 different genes in humans and 12 different genes in Caenorhabditis elegans encode the superfamily of intermediate filament (IF) proteins. In C. elegans, similar to humans, these proteins are expressed in a cell- and tissue-specific manner, can assemble into heteropolymers and into 5-10nm wide filaments that account for the principal structural elements at the nuclear periphery, nucleoplasm, and cytoplasm. At least 5 of the 11 cytoplasmic IFs, as well as the nuclear IF, lamin, are essential. In this chapter, we will include a short review of our current knowledge of both cytoplasmic and nuclear IFs in C. elegans and will describe techniques used for their analyses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: Noam
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Zuela
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel. Electronic address: gru@vms.huji.ac.il.
authors.forename: Yosef
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gruenbaum
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000378:metabolism*; D007382:Intermediate Filaments / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D034882:Lamins / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D034882:Lamins
keywords: Animal development; Cell mechanics; Filament assembly; Lamin