Characterization of larval growth in C. elegans cuticle mutants

Body size largely influences a variety of organismal traits, including: growth, reproduction, metabolism, and lifespan. For this reason, the factors that control organism size, particularly during development, have been explored in many systems. Caenorhabditis elegans, a free-living nematode, presents a versatile genetic model system to study how the processes of growth and development are regulated. C. elegans matures to an adult after multiple molting events during which time animals synthesize a new exoskeleton (cuticle) and expel their old one. This cuticle is a complex, multi-layered structure primarily composed of collagens. As animals progress through their life-cycle, the structure and thickness of the cuticle changes but its role in the maintenance of body morphology and integrity remains. To date, 21 cuticle collagen mutants have been identified that cause a range of body morphology defects (Page and Johnstone 2007). Some of these mutants exhibit a disproportionate reduction in body size compared to the wild type, and others are noticeably larger than the wild type (Cho et al. 2021), clearly demonstrating the importance of the physical structure of the cuticle on growth. Analyzing the characteristics of size during development in various C. elegans body shape mutants is central to understanding the role these genes have on body growth.