Book review of “Keys to the Nematode Parasites of Vertebrates. Supplementary Volume” by Lynda M. Gibbons

The concept of 'organismal complexity' has had a chequered career in genetics, with no rigorous operational definition available for the term. The recent finding that Drosophila melanogaster has more than four thousand fewer genes than the nematode forces a re-examination of whether gene number, in itself, can be taken as any real guide to complexity.

Learning is widespread in the animal kingdom. From the small nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans to humans, learning appears to play a central role in adaptation to local spatial and temporal environmental conditions. Though the neurobiological mechanisms of learning and memory have been intensively studied, the function and adaptive significance of learning has only recently received interest...

Nematodes occur regularly in macrobenthic samples but are rarely identified from them and are thus considered exclusively a part of the meiobenthos. Our study compares the generic composition of nematode communities and their individual body weight trends with water depth in macrobenthic (>250/300 µm) samples from the deep Arctic (Canada Basin), Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and the Bermuda slope with m...

Neurobiological research in genetically tractable organisms relies heavily on robust assays for behavioral phenotypes. The simple body plan of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans makes it particularly amenable to the use of automated microscopy and image analysis to describe behavioral patterns quantitatively. This protocol first describes the preparation and use of media for growing and mainta...

Theoretical ecology predicts that heterogeneous habitats allow more species to co-exist in a given area. In the deep sea, biodiversity is positively linked with ecosystem functioning, suggesting that deep-seabed heterogeneity could influence ecosystem functions and the relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (BEF). To shed light on the BEF relationships in a heterogeneous d...

Self-thinning in alfalfa, a dynamic process involving the progressive elimination of the weakest plants, was enhanced by Meloidogyne hapla. Alfalfa stand densities decreased exponentially with time and were reduced 62% (P = 0.05) in the presence of M. hapla. As stand densities decreased over time, mean plant weights increased at a rate 2.59 times faster in the absence of M. hapla. In a stepwise...

Developmental plasticity in response to environmental conditions (polyphenism) plays an important role in evolutionary theory. Analyzing the nematode taxon Pristionchus, Ragsdale et al. demonstrate that a single gene underlies the nematode's ability to develop distinct mouth forms in response to environmental changes.

Undulatory locomotion of micro-organisms through geometrically complex, fluidic environments is ubiquitous in nature and requires the organism to negotiate both hydrodynamic effects and geometrical constraints. To understand locomotion through such media, we experimentally investigate swimming of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans through fluid-filled arrays of micro-pillars and conduct numeri...

Density flotation has been frequently used for the extraction of nematodes from field samples. Density flotation curves for four nematode species and five solutes have been prepared. The curves confirm that flotation was governed by several factors: solute density, solute osmotic activity, and physiological properties of the nematode species. Nematode viability and function can be adversely aff...