C. elegans

American  

[el-i-ganz] / ˈɛl ɪˌgænz /

noun

1. a bacteriophagic, soil-dwelling nematode (Caenorhabditis elegans) whose genome was the first to be fully sequenced.

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C. elegans Scientific  

/ sē′ĕl′ə-gănz /

1. A nematode (Caenorhabditis elegans) that lives in soil, feeds on bacteria, and reaches lengths of about 1 mm (0.04 inch). It was the first animal whose genome was completely sequenced, and is widely used as a “model organism” by researchers in genetics and developmental biology because it has a small genome and transparent skin.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

C. elegans

Reducing EPS8 levels in human cell models of Huntington's disease and ALS produced results similar to those seen in C. elegans.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 3, 2026

Both conducted their research on the nematode worm - C. elegans.

From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2024

Thus opioid receptors are not found in invertebrate animals like the nematode C. elegans, the honeybee or the squid.

From Salon ● Jul. 14, 2024

A new pre-print atlas of neurotransmitters maps out such chemicals in C. elegans, a millimeter-long multicellular roundworm often used in biological experiments.

From Salon ● Jul. 14, 2024

In 2021, Nandakumar's collaborator Hiroki Shibuya and another group independently discovered that proteins in C. elegans, called TEBP-1 and TEBP-2, protected the worm's telomeric ends.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 8, 2024