The worm in the world and the world in the worm

Abstract

Caenorhabditis elegans is a preeminent model organism, but the natural ecology of this nematode has been elusive. A four-year survey of French orchards published in BMC Biology reveals thriving populations of C. elegans (and Caenorhabditis briggsae) in rotting fruit and plant stems. Rather than being simply a 'soil nematode', C. elegans appears to be a 'plant-rot nematode'. These studies signal a growing interest in the integrated genomics and ecology of these tractable animals.

Figure 1

C. elegans in the wild. Félix and Duveau discovered thriving populations of Caenorhabditis nematodes (and other organisms) in rotting apples in Orsay orchard, near Paris, France (left image). By isolating these mixed cultures (lower right), and then establishing pure strains of nematode (upper right), they identified both C. elegans and C. briggsae as common components of the apple rot communities. Images from Marie-Anne Félix (left, lower right) and Mark Blaxter (upper right).