Social Worms Adjust Foraging Strategies by Altering Responses to Social Signals
In a recent study published in the prestigious journal eLife, researchers have shed light on how animals, specifically Caenorhabditis elegans worms, optimize their foraging activity by switching their response to pheromones in a patchy environment.
The study, which received financial support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the Max Planck Society, and Wellcome, aimed to understand when animals know when to leave a food patch. The team conducted an experiment to investigate the patch-leaving behaviour of these worms.
It was found that worms that spent time in the presence of both food and pheromones moved towards the pheromone blend. Interestingly, worms that left early from a food patch were more likely to go to a spot with pheromones, while those that left late avoided the pheromones.
This behaviour suggests that worms learn to prefer pheromones based on their recent positive or negative experience with foraging. For instance, early leavers may associate pheromones with the presence of food, while late leavers may avoid them because they now associate pheromones with a depleted food patch.
Worms that leave a food patch before it is depleted and follow pheromones to reach another occupied patch form a fraction of the population. This strategy allows them to find food more efficiently. On the other hand, late leavers avoid other depleted patches by reversing their preference for pheromones, because they now associate pheromones with a depleted food patch.
The researchers developed a mathematical model to calculate the benefit to the worms of changing their preference for pheromones in a patchy environment. The model showed that the strategy that maximizes the food eaten by a worm aligns with the behaviour observed in the experiment.
Foraging food is a critical yet challenging activity for animals, with food often patchily distributed and other animals trying to find and consume the same resources. The findings provide new insights on how sensory cues are integrated to facilitate foraging and navigation in animals.
The study also provides further insights on how animals learn to adapt to sensory cues in their environment. For example, worms that were used to the environment with pheromones but without food avoided the pheromone blend.
eLife is a non-profit organization created by funders and led by researchers. The organization's mission is to help scientists accelerate discovery by operating a platform for research communication that encourages and recognizes the importance of reporting influential, high-quality research.
In conclusion, the study reveals that worms adapt their preference for pheromones to optimize food intake during foraging. This research could have implications for understanding the behaviour of other animals and potentially lead to strategies for improving agricultural practices.
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