Genes That Affect Cell Fates during the Development of Caenorhabditis elegans

Abstract

The development of a multicellular organism involves the generation of many different cell types from a single-celled fertilized egg. An understanding of the molecular mechanisms that cause cells to become different from one another is a fundamental goal of developmental biology. One organism well suited for the study of this problem at the level of single cells and individual cell divisions is the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans.