The Caenorhabditis elegansepidermis as a model skin. I: development, patterning, and growth

The skin of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegansis composed of a simple epidermal epithelium and overlying cuticle. The skin encloses the animal and plays central roles in body morphology and physiology; its simplicity and accessibility make it a tractable genetic model for several aspects of skin biology. Epidermal precursors are specified by a hierarchy of transcriptional regulators. Epidermal cells form on the dorsal surface of the embryo and differentiate to form the epidermal primordium, which then spreads out in a process of epiboly to enclose internal tissues. Subsequent elongation of the embryo into a vermiform larva is driven by cell shape changes and cell fusions in the epidermis. Most epidermal cells fuse in mid‐embryogenesis to form a small number of multinucleate syncytia. During mid‐embryogenesis the epidermis also becomes intimately associated with underlying muscles, performing a tendon‐like role in transmitting muscle force. Post‐embryonic development of the epidermis involves growth by addition of new cells to the syncytia from stem cell‐like epidermal seam cells and by an increase in cell size driven by endoreplication of the chromosomes in epidermal nuclei. WIREs Dev Biol2012 doi: 10.1002/wdev.79 This article is categorized under: Early Embryonic Development > Development to the Basic Body PlanInvertebrate Organogenesis > Worms