Caenorhabditis elegans

Caenorhabditis elegans
An adult hermaphrodite C. elegans worm
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Nematoda
Class:	Chromadorea
Order:	Rhabditida
Family:	Rhabditidae
Genus:	Caenorhabditis
Species:	C. elegans
Binomial name
Caenorhabditis elegans (Maupas, 1900)
Subspecies
Caenorhabditis elegans var. bergerac

Caenorhabditis elegans var. bergerac

Caenorhabditis elegans (/ˌseɪnoʊræbˈdaɪtəs ˈɛləɡænz/) is a free-living (not parasitic), transparent nematode (roundworm), about 1 mm in length, that lives in temperate soil environments. The name is a blend of the Greek caeno- (recent), rhabditis (rod-like) and Latin elegans (elegant). In 1900, Maupas initially named it Rhabditides elegans, Osche placed it in the subgenus Caenorhabditis in 1952, and in 1955, Dougherty raised it to the status of genus.

C. elegans is an unsegmented pseudocoelomate, and lacks a respiratory and a circulatory system. It possesses gut granules which emit a brilliant blue fluorescence, a wave of which is seen at death in a 'death fluorescence'. The majority of these nematodes are hermaphrodites. Males have specialised tails for mating that include spicules.

In 1963, Sydney Brenner proposed research into C. elegans primarily in the area of neuronal development. In 1974, he began research into the molecular and developmental biology of C. elegans, which has since been extensively used as a model organism.

...
Wikipedia