To Review or Not to Review?

Review: The Art and Design of Genetic Screens: Caenorhabditis elegans
Erik M. Jorgensen and Susan E. Mango
http:beadle.rutgers.edu/MMG/502files/502-Ce/C.%20elegans%20Screens%20nrg%202002.pdf


Despite the fact that all of the important breakthroughs in scientific research are published in very structured and often overly complex papers, I find that reviews are oftentimes even more enlightening. Rather than focusing on blowing away one's audience with a preponderance of field jargon and perfect sentence formatting and grammar, reviews do just that, review. They are great if you are new to a topic and need to get familiar with the vocabulary. Or maybe you are curious about some new concept you heard about on the news and want a brief but detailed overview. They can also be especially helpful as a study aide since they usually go over a topic from beginning to end, including discovery, experiments, uses, and the future. No matter what your motivation for reading a review, you will probably finish it with a broader and more well rounded understanding of a concept than you would have if you had read a detailed research paper. Not to mention that you might even get a few laughs out of it.

This article in particular is a great overview of the history and evolution of genetic research using C. elegans. Not only does it go over the history of this organism's use, but it also outlines what makes it such a great model organism and features a concise yet informative summary of C. elegans life cycle and morphology. In fact I found all of the figures and images to be especially clear and helpful. The box on EMS mutagenesis was particularly interesting since in my experience most papers or books seem to gloss over the details of how it is actually preformed. Understanding the details of the process a little better helps to emphasize why EMS is used so often in genetic analyses.

The bulk of the article goes over in depth the plethora of screens that are available to be condcuted for C. elegans. In a clever twist, the authors give a helpful analogy of screens from heaven, hell, and purgatory to underline the wide variety of screen and how applicable and usable they are. Several screens we have discussed in class are mentioned in detail, such as simple F2 screens with mutants of the same phenotype as well as selective screens (i.e. screens from heaven). Many other experiments are also discussed which we have not covered, such as microscope and laser ablation screens, large scale screen,s and modifier screens. While each of these screens has their own specific details and protocols, they all revolve around the same basic ideas we have discussed in class: looking for and analyzing the significance of certain mutants that result from various crosses or mutagenesis. The authors end the review with a lengthy discussion of the future of research in C. elegans, which I am sure will prove to be just as fruitful as its history.

Genetic screens are at the core of geneticist's arsenal of research tools due to their wide application and ability to be tailored to a specific experiment. They allow a researcher to narrow in on the process in question and begin to collect data, proving to be a very powerful and valuable technique. Based on the large variety of screen discussed in this review, I'm sure that a screen could be designed for any genetic experiment anyone wanted to do. Even you!