PlumX Metrics
Embed PlumX Metrics

Inversion of pheromone preference optimizes foraging in c. Elegans

eLife, ISSN: 2050-084X, Vol: 10
2021
  • 9
    Citations
  • 0
    Usage
  • 37
    Captures
  • 2
    Mentions
  • 51
    Social Media
Metric Options:   Counts1 Year3 Year

Metrics Details

  • Citations
    9
  • Captures
    37
  • Mentions
    2
    • News Mentions
      2
      • News
        2
  • Social Media
    51
    • Shares, Likes & Comments
      51
      • Facebook
        51

Most Recent News

Worms learn how to optimize foraging by switching their response to social cues

Researchers have shown how worms learn to optimize their foraging activity by switching their response to pheromones in the environment, according to a report published today in eLife.

Article Description

Foraging animals have to locate food sources that are usually patchily distributed and subject to competition. Deciding when to leave a food patch is challenging and requires the animal to integrate information about food availability with cues signaling the presence of other individuals (e.g., pheromones). To study how social information transmitted via pheromones can aid foraging decisions, we investigated the behavioral responses of the model animal Caenorhabditis elegans to food depletion and pheromone accumulation in food patches. We experimentally show that animals consuming a food patch leave it at different times and that the leaving time affects the animal preference for its pheromones. In particular, worms leaving early are attracted to their pheromones, while worms leaving later are repelled by them. We further demonstrate that the inversion from attraction to repulsion depends on associative learning and, by implementing a simple model, we highlight that it is an adaptive solution to optimize food intake during foraging.

Bibliographic Details

Dal Bello, Martina; Pérez-Escudero, Alfonso; Schroeder, Frank C; Gore, Jeff

eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd

Neuroscience; Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology; Immunology and Microbiology

Provide Feedback

Have ideas for a new metric? Would you like to see something else here?Let us know