Caenorhabditis elegans dauers vary recovery in response to bacteria from natural habitat.

ABSTRACT: Many species use dormant stages for habitat selection by tying recovery to informative external cues. Other species have an undiscerning strategy in which they recover randomly despite having advanced sensory systems. We investigated whether elements of a species' habitat structure and life history can bar it from developing a discerning recovery strategy. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has a dormant stage called the dauer larva that disperses between habitat patches. On one hand, C. elegans colonization success is profoundly influenced by the bacteria found in its habitat patches, so we might expect this to select for a discerning strategy. On the other hand, C. elegans' habitat structure and life history suggest that there is no fitness benefit to varying recove

SUBMITTER: Bubrig LT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7520223 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature