Several of its proteins contain a unique 36 amino acid sequence known as SXC domains.  It can enter a dauer stage when stressed during development, whereas normally an anchor cell uses the LIN-3 growth factor to direct the formation of its vulva.  The 2006 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology was awarded for work on RNA interference in it, and Sydney Brenner is famous for using it to study apoptosis, which it uses to eliminate 131 cells on its way to a total of 959 somatic cells, each with a known lineage.  Useful because of its transparency and developmental invariab
Several of its proteins contain a unique 36 amino acid sequence known as SXC domains.  It can enter a dauer stage when stressed during development, whereas normally an anchor cell uses the LIN-3 growth factor to direct the formation of its vulva.  The 2006 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology was awarded for work on RNA interference in it, and Sydney Brenner is famous for using it to study apoptosis, which it uses to eliminate 131 cells on its way to a total of 959 somatic cells, each with a known lineage.  Useful because of its transparency and developmental invariability, FTP, name this first multi-cellular animal to have its genome sequenced, a nematode often used as a model organism in biological research.
Several of its proteins contain a unique 36 amino acid sequence known as SXC domains.  
Caenorhabditis elegans