Scientistslearned that cell death is a normal and even important part of life by studying the development of the nematode worm C. elegans. What was the most important feature of C. elegans for the study of programmed cell death?

Question

(a) The nematode is smaller and simpler than the fruit fly.
(b) 70% of C. elegans genes have homologs in humans.
(c) The developmental pathway of each cell in the adult worm was known.
(d) Its genome was partially sequenced.

Answer 1

(c) This is the best answer because it was the prior developmental studies tracing cell lineages from the egg to the adult that allowed scientists to identify the precise time and location of cells that were being targeted for cell death. It was observed that this cell death was a normal and necessary part of the developmental pathway in the worm. Programmed cell death has since become known to be an important process in all multicellular eukaryotic organisms.