Steroids originating from bacterial bile acid degradation affect Caenorhabditis elegans and indicate potential risks for the fauna of manured soils.

Bile acids are steroid compounds from the digestive tracts of vertebrates that enter agricultural environments in unusual high amounts with manure. Bacteria degrading bile acids can readily be isolated from soils and waters including agricultural areas. Under laboratory conditions, these bacteria transiently release steroid compounds as degradation intermediates into the environment.

ROS-mediated relationships between metabolism and DAF-16 subcellular localization in Caenorhabditis elegans revealed by a novel fluorometric method.

Signalling pathways provide a fine-tuned control network for catabolic and anabolic cellular processes under changing environmental conditions (e.g. changes in oxygen partial pressure, Po).

Bacterial diet and weak cadmium stress affect the survivability of and its resistance to severe stress.

Stress may have negative or positive effects in dependence of its intensity (hormesis). We studied this phenomenon in by applying weak or severe abiotic (cadmium, CdCl) and/or biotic stress (different bacterial diets) during cultivation/breeding of the worms and determining their developmental speed or survival and performing transcriptome profiling and RT-qPCR analyses to explore the genetic basis of the detected phenotypic differences. To specify weak or severe stress, developmental speed was measured at different cadmium concentrations, and survival assays were carried out on different bacterial species as feed for the worms.

Detoxification and sensing mechanisms are of similar importance for Cd resistance in .

The present study employed mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) to measure the internal cadmium concentrations (Cd) in to determine Cd uptake from a Cd-containing environment as well as Cd release under Cd-free conditions. To analyze the functional role of several ATP binding cassette (ABC) transporters (e.g.