Transgenesis in C. elegans

The ability to manipulate the genome of organisms at will is perhaps the single most useful ability for the study of biological systems. Techniques for the generation of transgenics in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans became available in the late 1980s. Since then, improvements to the original approach have been made to address specific limitations with transgene expression, expand on the repertoire of the types of biological information that transgenes can provide, and begin to develop methods to target transgenes to defined chromosomal locations. Many recent, detailed protocols have been published, and hence in this chapter, we will review various approaches to making C. elegans transgenics, discuss their applications, and consider their relative advantages and disadvantages. Comments will also be made on anticipated future developments and on the application of these methods to other nematodes.