ANDRZEJ KRAUZE
The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is the workhorse of many developmental biology labs. The model organism is simple to grow, its genome is sequenced and well annotated, the developmental history of its 959 somatic cells in the adult hermaphrodite is mapped out, and it’s relatively easy to create genetic mutants. In 2005, three separate research groups showed that C. elegans could protect itself from viral attack using RNA interference (RNAi), but no natural virus capable of infecting the species had ever been described. This raised a question: If the nematode does not get infected by viruses, why does it have innate antiviral defenses?
Marie-Anne Félix, of the Institut Jacques Monod, found the answer in an unlikely place—an orchard in Orsay, a southwestern suburb of Paris. ...
