Building worms caught meat towers in the wilderness

Scientists have just discovered something that most of us may have never known: wild nematodes – also known as round worms – were loving climbing on top of each other to build fat towers.

The researchers in Germany detailed their discovery in a new study Published Thursday in current biology. They have found many types of nematodes, which live in the wilderness, and organize in these live worm towers – a phenomenon that has previously unparalleled in the laboratory. The results also show that microscopic worms use these structures to climb on animals or things that can bring them to another place, although there are many other questions about this practice.

According to the author of the study, Serena Ding, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior, the towers are barely confidential among the worm science community. But the behavior has reached a kind of legendary situation, as no one has documented it in the wild nematode. This can mean that worms are forced only to build towers under laboratory conditions, which may be limited to the benefit of any research on behavior.

“It is just something that always annoys me. I mean, yes, we are studying the collective behavior of the nematode in the context of the tower and other contexts, but is it real?” Deng, the leader of the laboratory that focuses on Neematic Research in Max Blanc, said Gizmodo. “So when I started my search program four years ago, I truly devoted a boost to find a high intensity and high numbers to do these things there. Then we were successful.”

It eventually took months for Ding colleagues, especially the co -author Ryan Greenway, to find and record cases of construction of the natural worm tower in fruits that decompose via orchards near the University of Constance (one of the three sites where the institute is located). Once the towers were found, the researchers brought some of them to the laboratory for more study. They also encouraged and studied the creation of worm towers in the laboratory with Caenorhabditis ElegansType used frequently to search.

“There is an important result,” Yes, it is present. “But the second result is that we actually confirm that the towers that can work to separate individuals at the same time.” “This (it was) is always believed to be a dispersed behavior, but no one really confirms this.”

Researchers have noticed worms in these towers that are closed on animals such as the fruit flies that they pass, for example, or use them as a kind of bridge to cross unknown gaps. Moreover, the towers seemed collectively respond to stimuli such as touching them. The fruits contained large amounts of nematodes, but the towers themselves were always made of only one type at one time. All this indicates that these living buildings should be considered “temporary” superior organisms “, similar to mud or some ants.

Although Ding and her team were hoping and expecting to find worm towers in nature, they were surprised in other ways.

The researchers found no evidence that laboratory worms take different roles within the tower, for anyone. Worms were equally mobile, and none of them had an advantage over others to become the head of the tower (i.e. the part that most of this behavior benefits). These worms are cloning, however, this means that they are practically identical to each other genetically. It is possible that things are not intense among the maximum relevant worms in the wilderness.

“These are the active trends that we are trying to follow now, because not everyone is able to distract. So who will disperse? Do they help each other? Are they cheating?” Deng said.

There are other remaining questions to answer these towers. The experiences of the team lab showed this C. Elegans Worms were able to build towers throughout their lives, for example, including adulthood. Previous research has indicated that this behavior was only implemented by Dauer Worms – a stage of life from life that some worms adopt to survive harsh environments. At the same time, the natural towers they found He was I was only made of Daour worms, so there may be something else that makes behavior more common during that stage of life.

This research is just the beginning of Ding and its team, because they are planning to follow these puzzles more. But Ding hopes that its team’s work can transfer a valuable lesson, especially for other pink researchers. Note like worms Jim Elegans It is usually changed in the laboratory so that scientists can track how some behaviors work at the molecular level. But she argues that there is still a lot to be learned from their studies in the real world.

She said: “What I am trying to do is to take really well -known creatures, but their study from a more natural perspective. I want to understand not only how the behavior is generated, but also what the behavior of the animal means an ecosystem from an evolutionary and related perspective.” “At least for me, this is an important study where I can publish a study without using one mutation, and we only look at behavior, and what these behaviors say. This is very exciting.”

Personally, I am happy that I now have a more exciting trivial to bring him in my next party.