C. elegans Gene Expression Project Objectives and Summary 2003-2006

The objective of this project was to define the RNA expression profiles in specific tissues, cells, and developmental stages of C. elegans. Two complementary approaches were being applied for in vivo analysis of gene expression:

Serial Analysis of Gene Expression (SAGE)

Promoter::GFP fusions (1)
Monitoring in vivo expression of the fusion constucts in transgenic worms allows the determination of the developmental stage, tissue, and in some cases, the cells where a particular gene is expressed. Our goal was to build promoter::GFP fusion constructs for C. elegans genes that have human orthologues. Of the over 5000 genes that fall into this category, promoter fusion constructs were created for 2000 of these, with a focus on genes expressed in muscle and nerve tissues. When coupled with SAGE and knockout data, this provides valuable and more complete expression profiles for cells, tissues, and developmental stages.

(1) High-Throughput In Vivo Analysis of Gene Expression in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Funded by Genome Canada and Genome British Columbia.