ABSTRACT
Nematodes have a huge significance in our investigations of animal development. The transparency and availability of nematode embryos made them attractive subjects to study and classically, embryonic development was described for many nematode species, leading to several key concepts in developmental biology. Genetic tractability has made the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans one of the handful of model systems now dominating modern biological research. Molecular analyses have revealed just how extensively developmental mechanisms are evolutionarily conserved confirming the validity of C. elegans as an appropriate model through which to understand development across the animal kingdom. Completion of the sequencing of the C. elegans genome, a first for a multicellular organism, has emphasised the pre-eminence of this model system and stimulated molecular analysis in other nematode species.
