Workshop report: Caenorhabditis nematodes as model organisms

A fundamental problem in biologyis to understand how genome expression translates into variation in molecular, cellular, developmental, phys-iological, behavioral, or life-history traits. During the summer of 2014, worm biol-ogists with a keen interest in evolutionary biology and natural ecology met in Les Treilles (France) to define the problems of trait variation better and to discuss empirical approaches using Caenorhabdi-tis species to address these problems. Compared with other model organisms, Caenorhabditis has several advantages, such as well-defined traits that can be subjected to highly controlled environ