What is C. elegans?

Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans)
Kingdom Animalia, Phylum Nematoda, Class Chromadorea, Subclass Rhabditida, Order Rhabditida, Family Rhabditidae, Genus, Caenorhabditis.
C. elegans is a type of animal that lives in soil and feeds on bacteria, and does not parasitize other organisms. C. elegans is about 1 mm long and has a transparent body.

The advantages of researching C. elegans include the following:
C. elegans has a relatively small number of cells (959 in hermaphrodites, 1031 in males).
The generation time of C. elegans is about 3 days, and each hermaphrodite lays about 300 fertilized eggs. 
C. elegans has organs such as nerves, muscles, intestines, and the reproductive system. 
All cell division processes (cell lineage) from fertilized eggs to adulthood in C. elegans have been identified.
The entire genome sequence of C. elegans (19099 genes) has been determined
(36% of all genes have homologs in humans).
C. elegans is easy to analyze genetically and reverse genetically. 
C. elegans can be frozen and stored in droplets in liquid nitrogen.
Because C. elegans has a transparent body, it is possible to analyze development, cell lineage, and proteins using GFP while still alive.

Four Nobel Prizes Brought by C. elegans ResearchFour Nobel Prizes Brought by C. elegans Research
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded in 2002 to Dr. Sydney Brenner, who established C. elegans as a model organism; Dr. John Sulston, who deciphered the entire cell lineage and discovered that a certain group of cells disappears (cell death) during development; and Dr. H. Robert Horvitz, who elucidated the molecular mechanism by analyzing mutants that prevent this cell death.
In 1998, Dr. Andrew Z. Fire and Dr. Craig C. Mello discovered the RNA interference (RNAi) method, which uses C. elegans to suppress the function of a specific gene by introducing double-stranded RNA of that gene into the cell, and in 2006, both doctors were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. This RNAi also occurs in humans, and the application of this method makes it possible to suppress the function of foreign genes such as pathogenic genes and viruses, and is therefore expected to become a new form of treatment.
Furthermore, in 2008, C. elegans researcher Dr. Martin Chalfie was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with discoverer Dr. Osamu Shimomura for their achievement in "discovering green fluorescent protein." Using C. elegans, Dr. Martin Chalfie demonstrated that the green fluorescent protein of Aequorea victoria could be used in other organisms, paving the way for the research application of green fluorescent protein. In 2024, Dr. Victor Ambros and Dr. Gary Ruvkun were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in recognition of their discovery of microRNAs and elucidation of their physiological functions by using C. elegans. In this way, C. elegans continues to contribute to the development of biomedical research as a useful model organism.

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