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Alternative Temporal Control Systems For Hypodermal Cell Differentiation In Caenorhabditis Elegans, Zhongchi Liu, Victor Ambros

Victor R. Ambros

Beginning of article: In certain multicellular organisms, genetic regulatory systems that specify the timing of cell division, differentiation and morpho-genesis must accommodate environmental and physiological contingencies that perturb or arrest development. For example, Caenorhabditis elegans can either develop continuously through four larval stages (L1–L4) or arrest indefinitely as a 'dauer larva' at the second larval (L2) moult, and later resume L3 and L4 development. At the larva-to-adult (L4) moult of both con-tinuous and 'post-dauer' development, hypodermal cells switch (the 'L/A switch') from a proliferating state to the terminally differentiated state. Four temporal regulators, lin-4, lin-14, lin-28 and lin-29, have been …