Threadworms on Lake Constance: towers against hunger and for new habitats!

Threadworms on Lake Constance: towers against hunger and for new habitats!

Bodensee, Deutschland - The fascinating survival strategies of threadworms have recently been of great interest in biological research. In particular, the focus is on the art Caenorhabditis Elegans , which shows extraordinary behavior in stressful situations such as lack of food. According to ZVW form threads under stress from up to 200 individuals, To secure your continued existence.

These towers are not just randomly stacked animals; They work as a coordinated structure. All worms involved in the construction never belong to different types and act in the permanent larval stage. The formation of these towers was first observed in orchards on Lake Constance, where the worms can be found on rotting apples and pears. In laboratory cultures, too, the art Caenorhabditis Elegans was even on a toothbrush bristle towers, such as Scinexx reported.

The role of PhoreSia

A remarkable aspect of this behavior is the so -called PhoreSia. Threadworms climb on top of each other to stick to flying, which they then use as a means of transport to achieve new habitats. In this way, the towers can grow high enough to bridge air columns and reach fruity surfaces that were previously unreachable. This shows that the tower building behavior is not only an emergency strategy, but also a general method for group movement.

In the nematodent towers there is no differentiation in the roles of the individuals. All worms are equally movable, fertile and strong, which indicates that genetic differences exist under natural conditions that may assign different tasks within the tower. These findings could help to expand the understanding of the development of group behavior in the animal kingdom, as described in the publication of the study in Current Biology in 2025.

conclusion and outlook

Research on these threadworms could provide valuable insights into adaptive behavior in the event of stress and group interactions. The results not only show how threadworms survive in nature, but also offer starting points for related scientific questions about the evolution of group behavior. Further studies will deal with the genetic foundations and the mechanics of this cooperation and thus throw light on a hardly understood animal behavior.

Overall, the examination of phenomena such as phoresia plays a crucial role in current biological research. According to Spectrum this opens up exciting perspectives that go far beyond the behavior of the threadworms.