Worms Caught Building Flesh Towers in the Wild

Scientists have just discovered something that most of us would probably have been well knowing: wild nematodes – also known as roundwall – like to climb on top of each other to build fleshy and twisted towers.

Researchers in Germany have detailed their discovery in a new study published Thursday in current biology. They have found and recorded several species of nematodes, living in nature, organizing themselves in these living lathers – a phenomenon previously seen in the laboratory. The results also show that microscopic worms use these structures to climb on animals or objects that can bring them elsewhere, although there are many other questions on practice.

According to the author of the main study Serena Ding, researcher at the Max Planck Institute of animal behavior, the towers are hardly a secret among the community of the sciences of verses. But the behavior had reached a kind of mythical status, because no one had ever documented it in wild nematodes. This could have indicated that worms are only obliged to build towers in laboratory conditions, which could have limited the usefulness of any research on behavior.

“It’s just something that has always disturbed me. I mean, yes, we study the collective behavior of the nematode in the context of the tower and other contexts, but is it real? ” Ding, the chief of a laboratory focused on nematodes at Max Planck, told Gizmodo. “So when I started my research program four years ago, I really devoted a push to find nematodes with high density and high figures by doing these things there. And then we succeeded.”

It was finally necessary for the colleagues of Ding, in particular the co-author Ryan Greenway, to find and record cases of construction of natural worms in the decomposition fruits scattered through the orchards near the University of Konstanz (one of the three places where the Institute is based). Once the towers have been found, the researchers brought some to the laboratory for a more in -depth study. They also encouraged and studied the creation of laboratory tours with Caenorhabditis ElegansA species frequently used for research.

“There is the important conclusion of” yes, they exist “. But the second observation is that we really confirm that the towers can be used to disperse individuals at the same time, “said Ding. “This [has] has always been considered dispersion behavior, but no one has really confirmed it. »»

The researchers observed the sides of these towers clinging to animals such as fruit flies passing them, for example, or by using them as a kind of bridge to cross otherwise inaccessible gaps. In addition, the towers seemed to respond collectively to the stimuli as being affected. The fruits contained charges of nematodes, but the towers themselves were always made of one species at a time. All this suggests that these living buildings should be considered as temporary “superorganisms”, similar to mud molds or some ants.

Although Ding and his team hoped for it and expected to find the towers of worms in the wild, they were surprised other ways.

The researchers found no evidence that laboratory worms occupy different roles inside the tower, for one. The worms were also mobile, and none seemed to have an advantage over the others to become the head of the tower (that is to say the part which benefits the most of this behavior). However, these verses are clonals, which means that they are practically identical to each other genetically. And it is possible that things are not so chummy among the more distant worms in nature.

“These are active directions that we are trying to follow at the moment, because not everyone is dispersed. So who is dispersed? Are they each other? Do he go? ” Said ding.

There are other questions left to which they remain to answer these towers. Team laboratory experiences showed that C. Elegans The worms were able to build towers throughout their lives, for example, including adulthood. Previous research had suggested that this behavior was only carried out by the verses of Dauer – a larval stage of life that some verses adopt to survive harder environments. At the same time, the natural towers they found were Made only of Dauer’s verses, so maybe there is something else that makes the behavior more common during this stage of life.

This research is only the beginning of Ding and its team, because they plan to continue these mysteries. But Ding hopes that the work of his team can already give a precious lesson, in particular to the other researchers of verse. She notes worms like C. elegances are generally modified in the laboratory so that scientists can follow how certain behaviors can work at the molecular level. But she maintains that there is also much more to learn by studying them in the real world.

“What I try to do is take really known organisms but to study them from a more natural perspective. I want to understand not only how behavior is generated, but also what behavior means for the animal of a more ecological and evolving perspective,” she said. “At least for me, this is an important study where, as a worm person, I can publish a study without using a single mutant and we just look at behavior, and what these behaviors say. For me, it’s super exciting.”

Personally, I’m just happy to have more scary anecdotes to raise at my next party.