C. elegans as a model system to accelerate discovery for Parkinson disease

•Numerous attributes of C. elegans render it advantageous for investigating PD.•Key molecular insights into PD disease mechanism have been gleaned using C. elegans.•C. elegans offers a powerful platform for studying gene-by-environment interactions.

The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans possesses a wealth of opportunities to explore mechanisms which regulate metazoan complexity, basic cellular biology, and neuronal system attributes. Together, these provide a basis for tenable understanding of neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson disease (PD) through functional genomic analysis and pharmacological manipulation for the discovery of previously unknown genetic and environmental risk factors. The application of C. elegans has proven prescient in terms of the elucidation of functional effectors of cellular mechanisms underlying PD that translate to mammals. The current state of PD research using C. elegans encompasses defining obscure combinatorial interactions between genes or between genes and the environment, and continues to provide opportunities for the discovery of new therapeutic targets and disease-modifying drugs.