​The idea that children inherit half of their DNA from each parent is a central tenet of modern genetics. But a team led by KAUST’s Christian Frøkjær-Jensen has re-engineered this heredity pattern in roundworms, a commonly used model organism in biology, and created animals with an unusual pedigree that are beginning to help scientists better understand nongenetic modes of inheritance and molecular signaling events between tissues and genomes.

“Being able to produce such populations is a game changer for developmental and genetic studies,” says KAUST geneticist Frøkjær-Jensen. “We expect these tools to be of substantial interest to the worm research community, as well as to many colleagues working on other model systems for which this approach may provide paradigm and guidance.”

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Image: The presence of red and green fluorescence in the muscles of the worm pharynx provides an easy visual readout of atypical chromosome sorting.
© 2018 Karen Lynn Artiles