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In December 1998 two teams, one in Cambridge, England, the other at Washington University in St. Louis, crossed a major genetic frontier by, for the first time, deciphering the full genetic programming of an animal, a microscopic roundworm called Caenorhabditis elegans. Previously, genome sequencing had been achieved only with single-celled organisms like bacteria. The significance of the sequencing of this simple worm's genome is enormous, says Kenneth Kemphues, professor of genetics in Cornell's Section of Genetics and Development. "Knowing the full sequence speeds up experimental analysis tremendously. And because 36 percent of the worm's estimated 19,000 proteins match known human proteins, it is clear that studies of this roundworm are relevant to human biology." Kemphues is studying C.elegans embryos, such as the one shown in this image from his lab, to gain an understanding of the process of embryogenesis. The image above shows a mutant C.elegans embryo undergoing cell division. The chromosomes (shown in blue) of each of the two cells are being separated with the aid of a transitory embryonic structure called the mitotic spindle (shown in yellow/green).
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