Sommer Lab Logo

Pristionchus – Molecular Toolkit

Pristionchus pacificus is an attractive model organism for laboratory studies based on several technical features:

  1. worms can indefinitely been grown in the lab on E. coli bacteria.
  2. they complete their life cycle in 4 days at 20° C.
  3. P. pacificus is a self-fertilizing hermaphrodite.


The following tools have been established over the years that allow mechanistic studies in this nematode:

  1. Forward and reverse genetic tools are well-established (Tian et al., 2008)
  2. Microinjection of DNA results in DNA-mediated transformation (Schlager et al., 2009)
  3. The CRISPR-Cas9 system works efficiently for genome editing (Witte et al., 2015)
  4. The P. pacificus genome has been sequenced a decade ago (Diederich et al., 2008)
  5. A de novo assembly from single molecule sequencing provided a chromosome-scale genome assembly of P. pacificus (submitted)


We are permanently improving our methodological platform in the following areas:

Scientists involved:

  • Dr. Christian Rödelsperger
  • Waltraud Röseler, Technician
  • Hanh Witte, Technician

Selected References:

Witte, H., Moreno, E., Rödelsperger, C., Kim, J., Kim, J.-S., Streit A. & Sommer, R. J. (2015): Gene inactivation using the CRISPR/Cas9 system in the nematode Pristionchus pacificus. Dev Genes & Evol., 225, 55-62.

Rödelsperger, C., Neher, R. A., Weller, A., Eberhardt, G., Witte, H., Mayer, W., Dieterich, C. & Sommer, R. J. (2014): Characterization of genetic diversity in the nematode Pristionchus pacificus from population-scale resequencing data. Genetics, 196, 1153-1165.

Schlager, B., Wang, X., Braach, G. & Sommer, R. J. (2009): Molecular cloning of a dominant roller mutant and establishment of DNA-mediated transformation in the nematode model Pristionchus pacificus. Genesis, 47, 300-304.

Dieterich, C., Clifton, S. W., Schuster, L. N.,Chinwalla,  A., Delehaunty, K., Dinkelacker, I., Fulton, L., Fulton, R., Godfrey, J., Minx, P., Mitreva, M., Roeseler, W., Tian, H., Witte, H., Yang, S. P., Wilson, R. K., Sommer,  R. J. (2008): The Pristionchus pacificus genome provides a unique perspective on nematode lifestyle and parasitism. Nature Genetics, 40, 1193-1198.

Tian, H, Schlager, B., Xiao, H. & Sommer, R. J. (2008): Wnt signaling induces vulva development in the nematode Pristionchus pacificus. Current Biology, 18, 142-146.

Other Resources:

Minerva
© Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology 2017 | Impressum | Datenschutzhinweis
To Top