BIOINFORMATICS: A 4D EXPRESSION DATABASE FOR THE MODEL ORGANISM CAENORHABDITIS ELEGANS

The aim of this project is to build a software tool to visualise the entire anatomical information of free living, small soil nematode (worm) Caenorhabditis elegans, a popular biological model system for geneticists as an abstracted 4-dimensional model (space and time). C. elegans is the anatomically best characterised animal model system. We know the complete cell lineage (cell division pattern) from zygote to adult animal, and the complete anatomy of every of the 959 cell nuclei, including the wiring diagram of the complete neural network of all 302 neurons of the hermaphrodite. To record developmental cell divisions in the microscope, several 4-dimensional image recording applications have been developed. Because of this simplicity, it possible to develop a 4D model of the worm in the form of a ball and stick model. This 4-dimensional model will serve as a basis onto which a database of gene expression patterns can be mapped. Further, it will serve as a novel tool to submit new expression pattern information, which was directly acquired from the microscope, to the central WormBase repository. Such a software will also be an extremely valuable educational tool of biology students.