While Caenorhabditis elegans was originally regarded as a model for investigating determinate developmental programs, landmark studies have subsequently shown that the largely invariant pattern of development in the animal does not reflect irreversibility in rigidly fixed cell fates. Rather, cells at all stages of development, in both the soma and germline, have been shown to be capable of changing their fates through mutation or forced expression of fate-determining factors, as well as during the normal course of development. In this chapter, we review the basis for natural and induced cellular plasticity in C. elegans We describe the events that progressively restrict cellular differentiation during embryogenesis, starting with the multipotency-to-commitment transition (MCT) and subsequently through postembryonic development of the animal, and consider the range of molecular processes, including transcriptional and translational control systems, that contribute to cellular plasticity. These findings in the worm are discussed in the context of both classical and recent studies of cellular plasticity in vertebrate systems.

中文翻译：

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秀丽隐杆线虫的发育可塑性和细胞重编程。


虽然秀丽隐杆线虫最初被认为是研究确定发育程序的模型，但随后具有里程碑意义的研究表明，动物中基本不变的发育模式并不反映严格固定的细胞命运的不可逆转性。相反，所有发育阶段的细胞，无论是体细胞还是种系细胞，都已被证明能够通过突变或命运决定因子的强制表达以及在正常发育过程中改变其命运。在本章中，我们回顾了秀丽隐杆线虫自然和诱导细胞可塑性的基础。我们描述了胚胎发生过程中逐渐限制细胞分化的事件，从多能到定型转变（MCT）开始，随后通过动物的胚胎后发育，并考虑有助于细胞可塑性的分子过程的范围，包括转录和翻译控制系统。线虫中的这些发现在脊椎动物系统细胞可塑性的经典和最新研究的背景下进行了讨论。