Towards the phenome of Caenorhabditis elegans

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Ralf Schnabel
• Subject Area: Cell Biology
• Term: from 2005 to 2011
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5452720

The project aims towards establishing a phenome (description of the phenotypes of all gene C. elegans. Only a detailed assessment of the phenotypes of a large number of genes, which a now defined by genome/proteome projects, will explain the biological (biocybernetic) function in the informational (logical) systems or modules governing development and homeostasis of life. To aim towards this goal 1.000 temperature sensitive (ts) mutants will be analysed since these are an efficient tool to dissect the pleiotropic (multiple; different) functions of genes during the life phases of organisms. It is the goal to assess the function of 100 ts mutations causing fate alterations in the embryo by 4D-microscopy. Genes affecting cell biological functions uncovered in this screen will be analysed in cooperations. Defects in larvae and adults are recorded together with the embryonic phenotypes in a database. Detailed analyses of interesting genes, identified in a pilot screen using 4D-microscopy, on which the strategy proposed here is based, will be carried out further. For example lineage alterations observed for one of these new genes suggested an affiliation with the Wnt-pathway, which was then confirmed by epistasis analyses. This shows that very fast but detailed 4D-analyses, even of hypomorphic ts-alleles, will help to assign functions to many very complex genes. The project may open an opportunity to assign biological functions to a part of the genome in the future.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants