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What should a tiny millimeter worm do when food is scarce? The solution lies in teaming up with countless companions to form tentacle-like structures that can bridge gaps to nearby objects or capture larger prey to aid in their journey.
Researchers examining nematode worms in laboratory settings have long observed their ability to construct “towers,” yet these phenomena lacked thorough exploration, states Serenadine from the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior in Germany. Therefore, she and her team aimed to investigate this further.
The research focused on the Caenorhabditis elegans worm species. In their experiments, when food was inadequate, and given a structure to assemble, a significant number of worms tended to create towers. For these studies, they utilized toothbrush bristles as a base.
While worms occasionally formed towers without any physical support, these structures were typically under 5 mm tall and only lasted about a minute. In contrast, when built upon the bristles, the towers reached heights of 11 mm and could endure for up to half a day.
In other nematode species, reports indicate towers can grow as tall as 50 mm. “They can expand significantly,” notes Din.
Although the base of the tower remains steady, the upper portion can extend well beyond the support and exhibit movement similar to tentacles. This allows the towers to reach out to nearby surfaces, forming bridges that enable the worms to traverse much wider gaps than individual organisms could manage.
“Tower” of nematode worms on rotten apples
Perez et al. Current Biology (2025)
The towers are capable of gripping objects that come into contact with them, such as fruit fly legs, effectively hitching a ride for the worms. This allows them to travel further without exerting their own energy.
While it’s known that individual nematodes can latch onto insects for transportation, the idea that an entire tower could do the same was previously unverified. “That’s a feature we expect to observe,” says Ding.
Utilizing a digital microscope, the researchers documented the tower’s formation on a decaying apple in an orchard adjacent to their laboratory.
Worm towers are exclusively formed by a single species, despite the presence of various species around them. They can consist of worms at any stage of their life cycle, even if the team discovers them during the process. Previously, it was believed that only “Dawer” worms, which are in their hard larval stage during stressful conditions, could create these towers.
There are other similarly crude forms of aggregation. For instance, slime molds, which are single-celled organisms like amoebas, can group together to form larger masses that move in search of nourishment.
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Source: www.newscientist.com
