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Updated: Mar 3, 2026
The Nematode Caenorhabditis Elegans - A Versatile In Vivo Model to Study Host-microbe Interactions
Published on: October 18, 2017
A simple answer to complex questions: Caenorhabditis elegans as an experimental model for examining the DNA damage
Matthias Rieckher1, Arturo Bujarrabal1, Markus A Doll1
1Institute for Genome Stability in Ageing and Disease, Cologne Cluster of Excellence in Cellular Stress Responses in Aging-Associated Diseases (CECAD), and Center for Molecular Medicine (CMMC), University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
Abstract:
The genetic information is constantly challenged by genotoxic attacks. DNA repair mechanisms evolved early in evolution and recognize and remove the various lesions. A complex network of DNA damage responses (DDR) orchestrates a variety of physiological adaptations to the presence of genome instability. Erroneous repair or malfunctioning of the DDR causes cancer development and the accumulation of DNA lesions drives the aging process. For understanding the complex DNA repair and DDR mechanisms it is pivotal to employ simple metazoan as model systems. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has become a well-established and popular experimental organism that allows dissecting genome stability mechanisms in dynamic and differentiated tissues and under physiological conditions. We provide an overview of the distinct advantages of the nematode system for studying DDR and provide a range of currently applied methodologies.
