# Cytoskeletal Function in C. elegans Embryos

> **NIH NIH R35** · UNIVERSITY OF OREGON · 2024 · $608,904

## Abstract

Project Summary
For 30 years now, our laboratory has used live cell imaging with fluorescently marked proteins,
and classical and molecular genetic approaches with the early embryo of the nematode
Caenorhabditis elegans to investigate cytoskeletal function and regulation. In addition to having
isolated temperature-sensitive mutations in many essential genes that control cytoskeletal
function, bypassing earlier requirements, we have more recently incorporated extensive use of
CRISPR/Cas9 to rapidly generate fluorescent protein fusions to endogenous loci, and to
degron-tag genes required for cytoskeletal function such that we can bypass earlier
requirements with auxin treatment. The advent of CRISPR/Cas9 and degron-tagging, along with
gene replacement strategies that benefit from CRISPR/Cas9 technology, now enable still more
powerful investigation of gene function in vivo using this model system. Our research program
over the next five years will focus on oocyte meiotic cell division in C. elegans, which provides a
powerful platform for investigating acentrosomal spindle assembly and the regulation and
function of an animal cell cortex, with relevance to cancer, human fertility, and tissue
engineering. The power of C. elegans genetics, and its amenability to live cell imaging, together
with ongoing advances in high resolution light microscopy and our proposed novel and exciting
application of Atomic Force Microscopy, make C. elegans an exceptional model system for
investigation of these essential processes.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10765405
- **Project number:** 2R35GM131749-06
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF OREGON
- **Principal Investigator:** BRUCE A BOWERMAN
- **Activity code:** R35 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $608,904
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2019-06-01 → 2029-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10765405

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10765405, Cytoskeletal Function in C. elegans Embryos (2R35GM131749-06). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-11 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10765405. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*