It already has increased the understanding of the genes involved with a certain human neuromuscular disease and an inherited form of Alzheimer's disease, said Ward, head of the UA department of molecular and cellular biology. Researchers can grow thousands of them in the lab at a time. Ward's lab is one of more than 500 around the world that study the Caenorhabditis' physiology, nervous system, embryos, muscles, proteins and cell development. We study the sperm because it's a fascinating cell. We like the biology of it.
Nematodes have many of the same kinds of body tissues, such as nerves and muscles, that humans have.
The basic molecular machinery for building cells, causing them to move, causing them to associate to form other organisms, all evolved more than a couple of billion years ago, Ward said. Having evolved from a common ancester, all creatures on Earth share the same cellular and biochemical strategies for living. The very genetic code that spells out the language of life is virtually identical in every life form from viruses to humans. What is learned can then be related to humans. Many of the genes found in nematodes, fruit flies and other model organisms have counterparts in humans that are so similar they are functionally interchangeable.