C. elegans

Publishing in Cell Chemical Biology, Buck Institute scientists, working in mouse models of Alzheimer's disease and aging, and in the nematode C. elegans, reveal the ketone body β-hydroxybutyrate interacts directly with misfolded proteins, altering their solubility and structure so they can be cleared from the brain through the process of autophagy.

Both conducted their research on the nematode worm - C. elegans.

Thus opioid receptors are not found in invertebrate animals like the nematode C. elegans, the honeybee or the squid.

A new pre-print atlas of neurotransmitters maps out such chemicals in C. elegans, a millimeter-long multicellular roundworm often used in biological experiments.

One advantage of the model the researchers used is that C. elegans embryos can develop outside the uterus and in the absence of maternal care.