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Medical Definition of Caenorhabditis elegans
1. Nematode much used in lineage studies since the number of nuclei is determined and the nervous system is relatively simple. The organism can be maintained axenically and there are mutants in behaviour, in muscle proteins and in other features. Sperm are amoeboid and move by an unknown mechanism which does not seem to depend upon actin or tubulin. This entry appears with permission from the Dictionary of Cell and Molecular Biology (11 Mar 2008)