Caenorhabditis elegans:
Researchers found that once C. elegans worms eat a disease-causing strain of bacteria, its children inherited the ‘knowledge’ to avoid making the same mistake — up to four generations.
- Caenorhabditis elegans is a nematode worm which is a small, relatively simple, and precisely structured organism.
- It grows within 3-5 days from a fertilised egg to a millimetre-long adult, and it has informed profound insights into the human body, as well as biology.
- It is widely used in research to understand neuronal and molecular biology. It was the first multicellular organism to have its full genome sequenced and neural wiring mapped.
- It has two sexes—a hermaphrodite and a male.
- The hermaphrodite can be viewed most simply as a female that produces a limited number of sperm: she can reproduce either by self-fertilization, using her own sperm, or by cross-fertilization after transfer of male sperm by mating.
- Self-fertilization allows a single heterozygous worm to produce homozygous progeny.
