Precise sensorimotor control impacts reproductive fitness of C. elegans in 3D environments.

The ability of animals to sense and navigate towards relevant cues in complex and elaborate habitats is paramount for their survival and reproductive success. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans uses a simple and elegant sensorimotor program to track odors in its environments. Whether this allows the worm to effectively navigate a complex environment and increase its evolutionary success has not been tested yet.

Consumption of Oleic Acid During Matriphagy in Free-Living Nematodes Alleviates the Toxic Effects of the Bacterial Metabolite Violacein.

Maternal behaviors benefit the survival of young, contributing directly to the mother's reproductive fitness. An extreme form of this is seen in matriphagy, when a mother performs the ultimate sacrifice and offers her body as a meal for her young. Whether matriphagy offers only a single energy-rich meal or another possible benefit to the young is unknown.

Odor-dependent temporal dynamics in adaptation and aversive learning behavior.

Animals sense an enormous number of cues in their environments, and, over time, can form learned associations and memories with some of these. The nervous system remarkably maintains the specificity of learning and memory to each of the cues. Here we asked whether the nematode adjusts the temporal dynamics of adaptation and aversive learning depending on the specific odor sensed.

Cultivation of Caenorhabditis elegans in Three Dimensions in the Laboratory.

The use of genetic model organisms such as Caenorhabditis elegans has led to seminal discoveries in biology over the last five decades. Most of what we know about C. elegans is limited to laboratory cultivation of the nematodes that may not necessarily reflect the environments they normally inhabit in nature.

Hypergravity hinders axonal development of motor neurons in .

As space flight becomes more accessible in the future, humans will be exposed to gravity conditions other than our 1G environment on Earth. Our bodies and physiology, however, are adapted for life at 1G gravity. Altering gravity can have profound effects on the body, particularly the development of muscles, but the reasons and biology behind gravity's effect are not fully known.

NGT-3D: a simple nematode cultivation system to study Caenorhabditis elegans biology in 3D.

The nematodeCaenorhabditiselegansis one of the premier experimental model organisms today. In the laboratory, they display characteristic development, fertility, and behaviors in a two dimensional habitat. In nature, however,C.