#nematodes

[mapsontheweb]

Where nematodes are found most inside the soil

[hellsitegenetics]

I too wanna gacha for the Critter Cards. Maybe I'll pull an extra rare critter. Assign me a critter. I hope it's a cool one. Like the bacteriophages we all know and love.

String identified: t aa gaca t Ctt Ca. a ' a ta a ctt. Ag a ctt. t' a c . t actag a a .

Closest match: Caenorhabditis wallacei genome assembly, chromosome: II

(image source)

[givingyouarandompathogen]

@i-give-you-a-fish

I'll trade you a pathogen for a fish :D

Pathogen assigned: Anisakis simplex

Cause of anisakiasis, type of nematode

(Image from Wikipedia article)

Spread via: Consumption of undercooked salmon, mackerel, squid etc.

[squid-with-five-eyes]

red wine supernova if it was about a fish that was in love with a sealworm nematode:

baby why dont you swim over

pseudoterranova

crawling into me

[mindblowingscience]

Microscopic worms that live their lives in the highly radioactive environment of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ) appear to do so completely free of radiation damage. Nematodes collected from the area have shown no sign of damage to their genomes, contrary to what might be expected for organisms living in such a dangerous place. The finding, published earlier this year, doesn't suggest the CEZ is safe, the researchers say, but rather the worms are resilient and able to adroitly adapt to conditions that might be inhospitable to other species. This, says a team of biologists led by Sophia Tintori of New York University, could offer some insights into DNA repair mechanisms that could one day be adapted for use in human medicine.

Continue Reading.

[taxonomytournament]

Taxonomy Tournament: Invertibrates

Articulata. This class is made up of sea lilies, which have a stalk an attach themselves to substrate in their adult forms, and feather stars, which are free-moving. They feed using arms with feathery pinnules.

C. elegans. This nematode species is commonly used as a model organism, being the first multi-cellular organism to have its genome sequenced and neural connections mapped

[todaysbug]

February 11th, 2024

The Worm (Caenorhabiditis elegans)

Distribution: Found in temperate regions worldwide.

Habitat: Terrestrial; lives in humid soils with moderate oxygen contents and low-to-medium clay contents.

Diet: Microbivorous; feed on bacteria that lives in soil and on rotting vegetation, but can also feed on various species of yeast.

Description: C. elegans is aptly nicknamed "the worm" because it is a very common laboratory model; in fact, it's used as the model organism for all eukaryotic organisms! These worms are very easy to study due to the transparency of their body, as well as their limited number of cells, having only 131 cells in their entire bodies. They were the first multicellular organisms to have their entire genome sequenced (as they only have 6 chromosomes and approximately 20,000 genes). Common research on these worms include the processes of embryogenesis, development, disease and aging (especially in the form of programmed cell death). By understanding how their genes are involved in the aging process, we can hopefully have a better idea of the processes involved in human aging, too!

Most of these worms are self-fertilizing hermaphrodites, though males are also present (composing only about 1/1000 worms). Though their anatomy is quite simple, they do possess a simple brain and nervous system (one third of their cells are neurons). They're also capable of rudimentary learning, as well as using chemoreceptors to orient themselves, and respond minimally to light (living in dark environments, they don't have much need for good eyesight).

Image by K. Bradnam and gif by Bob Goldstein.

[theyoungwaldschrat]

Coprinus comatus, The shaggy inkcap is a super intersting mushroom and metal as fuck.

First of all, the young mushrooms are edible and very tasty, but as soon as they get bigger, the hat starts dissolving into a black goo that drips down and makes it look like a fantasy trope type of corruption is spreading through the lands.

Actually tho it's because the gills of the mushroom digest themselves to produce that goo which contains all the spores for dispersal.

But that's not the most metal thing about it.

No, the shaggy inkcap is also a nematophagous fungus, i.e. it kills and eats tiny worms called nematodes to supply extra nitrogen.

There's a whole bunch of nematophagous fungi and they use different methods to kill the nematodes. There's five groups:

Nematode-Trapping most of these produce a type of glue that traps the nematodes, but some actually produce microscopic slings which contract and strangle a nematode if one happens to crawl through.

Ovicidal These fungi grow their mycelium into the eggs of nematodes and digest them

Endoparasitoid 'The nematodes ingest spores and the fungi will grow out of the nematode from the inside.

Toxin-Producing Oyster mushrooms belong to this group. They produce a toxin which immobilizes the nematodes and implodes their heads.

Special Attack Devices

Now these last two groups is where the shaggy inkcap comes in.

The hyphae (which are the stingy cells of the mycelium) grow absolutely microscopic structures which the scientific literature calls

"spiny balls"

They produce a toxin which immobilizes the nematode and then they veery slowly grow towards them and bonk them on the head with a morningstar ripping them apart. They then grow into the nematode with what scientific literature calls a "penetrating peg" and digest them from the inside. Metal as fuck

Sources: Luo et al. "Coprinus comatus: A Basidiomycete Fungus Forms Novel Spiny Structures and Infects Nematode", 2004 Soares et al. "Nematophagous fungi: Far beyond the endoparasite, predator and ovicidal groups", 2018

[bpod-bpod]

In a Spindle

Live imaging and electron tomography in cells of the tiny worm Caenorhabditis elegans (C.elegans for short) reveal fine details of the changes in cell structure occurring during female meiosis – specialised cell division for sexual reproduction to produce egg cells with only one pair of chromosomes. The length of the meiotic spindle (a transient assembly of proteins that forms to segregate chromosomes) is correlated with the length of microtubules – tiny flexible pipes formed of a protein called tubulin – which comprise most of the spindle proteins.

Read the published article here

Image from work by Vitaly Zimyanin and Stefanie Redemann

Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, VA, USA

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution – NonCommercial – NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

You can also follow BPoD on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

[futurebird]

Your Ants

There are 2.5 million ants per person. I like to think specific colonies are assigned to each of us. Your *particular* ants.

Perhaps you have been assigned just three massive colonies of leaf cutters. Perhaps you are assigned 10,000s of tiny colonies of many different species each with dozens to 100s of ants.

But, what is more remarkable is that *each* of your assigned ants has to her (or occasionally him) assigned about 22,800 nematodes.

How do the little girls keep track of them all?

[just-a-girl-who-likes-sharks]

I can’t believe I haven’t seen anything about this yet

Here’s a source

[mudwerks]

(via Carnivorous oyster mushrooms can kill roundworms with “nerve gas in a lollipop” | Ars Technica)

The oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) is a staple of many kinds of cuisine, prized for its mild flavors and a scent vaguely hinting at anise. These cream-colored mushrooms are also one of several types of carnivorous fungi that prey on nematodes (roundworms) in particular. The mushrooms have evolved a novel mechanism for paralyzing and killing its nematode prey: a toxin contained within lollipop-like structures called toxocysts that, when emitted, cause widespread cell death in roundworms within minutes. Scientists have now identified the specific volatile organic compound responsible for this effect, according to a new paper published in the journal Science Advances.

[hellsitegenetics]

every time you post a cool looking bug I get obsessed w the little guys tbh. like I got a new favorite moth because of you. 10/10 best blog on the website

String identified: t t a c g g gt t tt g t. gt a at t ca . / t g t t

Closest match: Caenorhabditis sinica genome assembly, chromosome: IV

(image source)

[athyrium-angustum]

You would still love your girlfriend if she was a worm but I’m putting her in a petri dish and doing experiments on her

[silelda]

@ellethespaceunicorn 5th place in the 2024 Nikon Small World in Motion Competition is a tardigrade riding a nematode. It feels like it would be its equivalent of a rodeo bull!

[mindblowingscience]

UC Riverside scientists have discovered a tiny worm species that infects and kills insects. These worms, called nematodes, could control crop pests in warm, humid places where other beneficial nematodes are currently unable to thrive. This new species is a member of a family of nematodes called Steinernema that have long been used in agriculture to control insect parasites without pesticides. Steinernema are not harmful to humans or other mammals and were first discovered in the 1920s.

Continue Reading.