Communication and contact are key
to the preservation of a species. Despite this, humans have evolved to learn
that the use of too many words can often make our intended messages unclear.
Well, maybe its time we take things down a notch in communicational complexity
and learn a lesson or two from Caenorhabditis
elegans, a free-living nematode that knows how to get straight to the point
when communicating with its peers.
C.
elegans is used as a model system for understanding social behaviors such
as foraging, population density sensing, mating and aggregation. Like many
other eusocial species, C. elegans utilize
the effectiveness of chemical signaling for efficient intra- and inter-specific
interactions. However, unlike most eusocial species C. elegans has produced an
assortment of 150 different chemical pheromones, which are secreted from the nematode’s
skin, and can induce and prohibit specific behavioral activities among its fellow
nematodes.
Recent observations and analyses have
shown that C. elegans use small
molecule signals – called indole ascarosides – to regulate behaviors such as
population density sensing and mating. These indole ascarosides are able to receive
input from two major metabolic pathways, amino acid catabolism and lipid
beta-oxidation, which suggests that C.
elegans communicate metabolic status through the use of a modular code of
small molecule signals.
