Résumé
Over the past 10 years a number of laboratories have started to focus on Caenorhabditis elegans radiation responses, taking advantage of a multi-cellular experimental model system that enables studying DNA damage responses at the organismal level. Here we provide a comprehensive review of C. elegans DNA damage responses, largely focusing on recombinational repair, DNA damage signalling and DNA damage-induced apoptosis in response to ionizing radiation. To better explain C. elegans DNA damage response phenotypes and DNA damage response pathway, we also provide an introduction to the C. elegans life cycle and indicate key experimental procedures.