Nematodes have been spotted forming writhing towers of tiny worms in the wild for the first time, according to a report in the journal Current Biology.
“For so long natural worm towers existed only in our imaginations.
That level of species specificity in worm tower “construction” hinted that there might be more driving the behavior than a seemingly random creature cluster.
To see if other kinds of worms could also form such a “superorganism”, researchers created conditions to coach the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans into assembling into similar structures.
And when researchers tapped the top of the tower with a glass pick, the worms wriggled toward that stimulus.
A report published in the journal Current Biology reports the first time nematodes have been observed in the wild forming writhing towers of tiny worms.
The strange behavior, which was believed to be a competitive attempt to get away from the other members of the group, had only ever been seen in experimental settings. New pictures of these towers emerging in the wild, however, suggest a more advantageous motive.
On fallen apples and pears at nearby orchards, researchers in Konstanz, Germany, recorded the video. The Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (MPI-AB) and University of Konstanz team was then able to show that the worms’ “towering” behavior occurs naturally and that it serves as a mass transit method by combining these photos with additional laboratory tests.
After co-author Ryan Greenway, a biologist at the University of Konstanz, sent her a video recording from the field, senior author Serena Ding, group leader at the MPI-AB, said, “I was ecstatic when I saw these natural towers for the first time.”. For a long time, we could only imagine natural worm towers. However, with the correct tools and a great deal of curiosity, we were able to locate them in plain sight. “”.
Some intriguing facets of worm cooperation were also uncovered by that curiosity. Although numerous nematode species were seen crawling inside the fruit by the researchers, only one species within the same developmental period—a hard larval stage called a “dauer”—participated in tower building. A seemingly random creature cluster might not be the only factor influencing the behavior, as evidenced by the degree of species specificity in worm tower “construction.”.
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Daniela Perez, a postdoctoral researcher at MPI-AB and the study’s first author, stated that a nematode tower is more than just a mess. It is a superorganism in motion, a well-coordinated structure. “.”.
According to the paper, these findings might provide a “missing link” to understanding how similar organisms behave. Although slime molds, fire ants, and spider mites have all been known to exhibit such towering behavior, it is still comparatively uncommon in the natural world.
Researchers set up conditions to train the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans to assemble into similar structures in order to determine whether other worm species could also form such a “superorganism.”. D. elegans is a model organism that is extensively researched in terms of both biology and behavior.
Before letting the worms loose, Perez used a toothbrush bristle as a kind of scaffold by inserting it into an agar plate devoid of food. In two hours, the C. Elegans used the bristle as the spine of a tower. While some worms spanned gaps between areas, others extended their exploratory “arms” in smaller clusters. Upon tapping the top of the tower with a glass pick, the worms squirmed in the direction of the stimulus.
According to Perez, “the towers are sensing and growing actively.”. They reacted right away when we touched them, moving toward and adhering to the stimulus. “”.
It also made the researchers wonder if this activity was being driven by a worm hierarchy of some kind. Did weaker, smaller worms or stronger ones have to do all the work?
The roundworms, it turns out, worked in a very egalitarian manner. The laboratory-bound C. nematodes differ from those found in orchards. From larval to adult, elegans represented a variety of life stages, but they all contributed. That implies that “towering” might be a more universal group movement tactic than previously believed.
Ding explains that his research “opens up a whole new system for exploring how and why animals move together.”.
