Lassegue, Circe et al. (2011) International Worm Meeting "Do ascarosides affect egg-laying behavior in Caenorhabditis elegans?"

Lassegue, Circe, Nimalendran, Rathika, Edison, Arthur, Ajredini, Ramadan

[International Worm Meeting, 2011]

Caenorhabditis elegans, a small transparent nematode that lives in temperate soil environments, is one of the simplest eukaryotic organisms with a nervous system to be studied in great detail. Over recent years, a large number of ascarosides have been identified as signaling molecules in C. elegans (Edison, 2009). Ascaroside levels are affected by worm concentration and available food when developed in "worm water". Ascarosides have been shown to regulate a large number of behaviors in C. elegans including dauer formation (Butcher, et al., 2007), mating behavior ((Srinivasan, et al., 2008), aggregation (Macosko, et al., 2009), and olfaction (Yamada, et al., 2010). Additionally, environmental and homeostatic cues are now being explored to see how these affect nematode egg-laying habits (Schafer et al., 2001). We studied the modulatory effect of several ascarosides on egg-laying behavior and brood size in adult female C. elegans. This study aims to determine the effect of ascarosides on egg-laying behavior in adult C. elegans. A range of concentrations of several synthetic ascarosides as well as natural worm water produced by C. elegans were studied. Standard egg-laying assays and known positive and negative controls were utilized (Koelle, 2004).