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Caenorhabditis elegans, or roundworms, have revolutionized the way we approach genetic studies in understanding how genes regulate cellular activities. In this video, we review the characteristics of C. elegans that make it such a powerful model organism.
C. elegans, with their simple genetics and diminutive nervous systems, have helped us to understand numerous aspects of human development, behavior, aging and disease. Although, they do not have a brain per se, they have a rather sophisticated nervous system comprised of 302 neurons — almost a third of the total 959 cells found in an adult hermaphrodite C. elegans worm.
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