RESUMO
WormBase (www.wormbase.org) is the major publicly available database of information about Caenorhabditis elegans, an important system for basic biological and biomedical research. Derived from the initial ACeDB database of C. elegans genetic and sequence information, WormBase now includes the genomic, anatomical and functional information about C. elegans, other Caenorhabditis species and other nematodes. As such, it is a crucial resource not only for C. elegans biologists but the larger biomedical and bioinformatics communities. Coverage of core areas of C. elegans biology will allow the biomedical community to make full use of the results of intensive molecular genetic analysis and functional genomic studies of this organism. Improved search and display tools, wider cross-species comparisons and extended ontologies are some of the features that will help scientists extend their research and take advantage of other nematode species genome sequences.
Assuntos
Caenorhabditis elegans/genética , Bases de Dados Genéticas , Genoma Helmíntico , Animais , Caenorhabditis elegans/metabolismo , Mapeamento Cromossômico , Expressão Gênica , Redes Reguladoras de Genes , Genes de Helmintos , Genômica , Internet , Espectrometria de Massas , Peptídeos/química , Fenótipo , Interface Usuário-ComputadorRESUMO
Co-factor homeodomain proteins such as Drosophila Homothorax (Hth) and Extradenticle (Exd) and their respective vertebrate homologs, the Meis/Prep and Pbx proteins, can increase the DNA-binding specificity of Hox protein transcription factors and appear to be required for many of their developmental functions. We show that the unc-62 gene encodes the C. elegans ortholog of Hth, and that maternal-effect unc-62 mutations can cause severe posterior disorganization during embryogenesis (Nob phenotype), superficially similar to that seen in embryos lacking function of either the two posterior-group Hox genes nob-1 and php-3 or the caudal homolog pal-1. Other zygotically acting unc-62 alleles cause earlier embryonic arrest or incompletely penetrant larval lethality with variable morphogenetic defects among the survivors, suggesting that unc-62 functions are required at several stages of development. The differential accumulation of four unc-62 transcripts is consistent with multiple functions. The C. elegans exd homologs ceh-20 and ceh-40 interact genetically with unc-62 and may have overlapping roles in embryogenesis: neither CEH-20 nor CEH-40 appears to be required when the other is present, but loss of both functions causes incompletely penetrant embryonic lethality in the presence of unc-62(+) and complete embryonic lethality in the presence of an unc-62 hypomorphic allele.