C. elegansResources from DNAFORM

The worm C. elegans has become one of the most successful model systems for studies on a genome-wide level (1-3). Due to the conservation of its genetic pool, many discoveries made in C. elegans have lead to key findings in human such as the identification of critical genes for apoptosis. By now complete sets of genomic resources are available for studies in C. elegans, which can be obtained from DNAFORM:

C. elegans Fosmid Library

Don Moerman and colleagues have made a fosmid library comprising genomic fragments from C. elegans. The library was constructed using the fosmid vector pCC1FOS (Epicentre) and is maintained at low copy number until induced. The use of fosmids as backbones allows for the maintenance of large pieces of DNA (around 40kB) in limited number (1-5) per bacterial host.

> C. elegans Fosmid Library

C. elegans ORFeome Version 1.1

Marc Vidal and colleagues (4) have cloned a first version (version 1.1) of all predicted protein-coding open reading frames (ORFs) of Caenorhabditis elegans, the so-called "ORFeome". Their effort has resulted in the generation of over 12,000 clones, of which ~4,000 correspond to genes have not yet been confirmed by other cDNAs or expressed sequence tag (EST).

> C. elegans ORFeome Version 1.1

C. elegans RNAi Library

The C. elegans RNAi feeding library from Julie Ahringer's group (5) at the The Wellcome CRC Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, opened up new possibilities for studying gene functions in C. elegans. The whole genome library consists of 16,757 bacterial strains, which cover 87% of C. elegans genes.

> C. elegans RNAi Library

C. elegans Promoterome Library

The promoter library from Marc Vidal and colleagues (6) includes clones containing ~6,000 predicted promoters, cloned into the highly flexible MultiSite Gateway™ system (Invitrogen).

> C. elegans Promoterome Library

References

1. Hillier LW, Coulson A, Murray JI, Bao Z, Sulston JE, and Waterston RH. "Genomics in C. elegans: so many genes, such a little worm." Genome Res. 2005 Dec;15(12):1651-60.
2. Astin J, Merry A, Rajan J, and Kuwabara PE. "Caenorhabditis elegans functional genomics: omic resonance." Brief Funct Genomic Proteomic. 2004 Apr;3(1):26-34.
3. Lee J, Nam S, Hwang SB, Hong M, Kwon JY, Joeng KS, Im SH, Shim J, Park MC. "Functional genomic approaches using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans as a model system." J Biochem Mol Biol. 2004 Jan 31;37(1):107-13.
4. Reboul J, Vaglio P, Rual JF, Lamesch P, Martinez M, Armstrong CM, Li S, Jacotot L, Bertin N, Janky R, Moore T, Hudson JR Jr, Hartley JL, Brasch MA, Vandenhaute J, Boulton S, Endress GA, Jenna S, Chevet E, Papasotiropoulos V, Tolias PP, Ptacek J, Snyder M, Huang R, Chance MR, Lee H, Doucette-Stamm L, Hill DE, Vidal M. "C. elegans ORFeome version 1.1: experimental verification of the genome annotation and resource for proteome-scale protein expression." Nat Genet. 2003 May;34(1):35-41.
5. Fraser AG, Kamath RS, Zipperlen P, Martinez-Campos M, Sohrmann M, and Ahringer J.: "Functional genomic analysis of C. elegans chromosome I by systematic RNA interference." Nature. 2000 Nov 16;408(6810):325-30.
6. Dupuy D, Li QR, Deplancke B, Boxem M, Hao T, Lamesch P, Sequerra R, Bosak S, Doucette-Stamm L, Hope IA, Hill DE, Walhout AJ, Vidal M. "A first version of the Caenorhabditis elegans Promoterome." Genome Res. 2004 Oct;14(10B):2169-75.