Lmst

#Roundworms discovered in Great Salt Lake are new to science https://phys.org/news/2025-12-roundworms-great-salt-lake-science.html

"#Nematodes are ubiquitous on Earth... Yet none had been positively detected in #GreatSaltLake until 2022, when expeditions by kayak and bike led by Julie Jung recovered nematodes in the lake's microbialites, the lithified mounds covering parts of the lakebed... nematodes became just the 3rd metazoan taxon known to inhabit the lake's highly saline waters, the other #animals being brine #shrimp and brine #flies"

The sticky battle between microscopic #worms and predatory fungi comes with a genetic trade-off https://phys.org/news/2025-09-sticky-microscopic-worms-predatory-fungi.html

"predatory #fungi use specialized traps—adhesive nets—to capture their nematode prey... the nematode gene nhr-66 controls the production of cuticular #collagens that enable #PredatoryFungi to adhere and capture the #nematodes... While reduced collagen expression helps worms evade fungal traps, it also weakens their protective cuticle, highlighting an evolutionary trade-off"

fluorescence microscopy image showing a fungal network in green and a microscopic worm, that is trapped in it, in magenta

The https://bsky.app/profile/imc2025.bsky.social
started for us and our #MountainSoilBiodiversity session. 🪱🦠🕷️

Priyanka Kashyap showing us the diversity and functional groups of #nematodes in Indian high mountains doing some #OpenTopChamber experiments.

#IMC2025

#Worms form living towers in nature to hitch rides to new habitats https://phys.org/news/2025-06-worms-towers-nature-hitch-habitats.html

Towering behavior and collective dispersal in #Caenorhabditis #nematodes: Daniela Perez et al. https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(25)00601-3

"If food runs out and competition turns fierce, they slither towards their numerous kin. They climb onto each other and over one another until their bodies forge a living tower that twists skyward where they might hitch a ride on a passing animal to greener and roomier pastures."

green and black picture of a tower-like structure made from multiple thin worms

PopSci - "#Nematodes form superorganisms to build bridges & hitch rides … put cheerleaders' pyramid-building skills to shame. … like a cohesive drop of wiggly gelatin. … On rotting apples & pears, they found dozens … #WormTowers strategically move towards any object that brushes by … fast enough to glom onto the leg of a passing insect. … The basic physics of how thousands of tiny, slimy bodies manage to form something so coordinated and solid remains unresolved"
https://www.popsci.com/environment/nematode-worm-towers/

@SciMag @news-from-science-SciMag

Original paper is open access and will show you the movies:

"Towering behavior and collective dispersal in Caenorhabditis nematodes", Perez et al. 2025
https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(25)00601-3

#nematodes #Celegans

May 23, 2025. We have trouble in the garlic bed, send help. A dozen consecutive plants are twisted and discolored. They were not visibly ill yesterday. The next rows are healthy at this time. The soil temperature is 55 F, 13 C. Nematodes and thrips are suspected. We sprayed three rows with neem oil this afternoon. We have a four year crop rotation. #gardening, #garlic, #minnesota, #nodig, #nematodes, #thrips.

Two garlic plants with yellowed leaves with green edges. The plants are twisted. The background is leaf mulch.

@eugeneparnell

(2/2)

... surface ca. 2 hrs. after watering --the pots are too high.

Don't know how else to calibrate water 💦, as the plants are so high now and there is rarely enough rain.

As Lionel @lionelb had pointed out, and as I've found quite some leaves with bite damages, I've ordered #nematodes against the weevil, which arrive this week.

https://expressional.social/@lionelb/114471578326823077

Hopefully, they are the root cause: there are quite some more yellow(ish) leaves now!

//

EukFunc: A Holistic Eukaryotic Functional Reference for Automated Profiling of Soil Eukaryotes

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1755-0998.14118

#soil #eukaryotes #function #Rstats #fungi #nematodes #protists

Wednesday April 30, 2025. Drama in the compost! The compost pile haa warmed up to 55 F (13 C). This will be the first flip of the pile since the material was covered with the fall 2024 leaves. #gardening, #compost, #minnesota, #zone4b, #growyourown, #sowbug, #centipedes, #Earthworms, #nematodes, #nodig, #allotment.

A side view of two layers in the compost pile. The top is a thick layer of brown and tan leaves. The bottom is near black soil. The hori hori is vertical, blade silver, handle orange.

Nematodes!! In a gall!! Waving a you!!
#Nematodes #gall

https://lone.earth/w/9TDgAzgNVVwjWbZjuKM3Ef

TIL: "Naturally infected animals do not show any clinical signs of disease [Trichinellosis], except in rare instances, even though they can reportedly harbor 1,000 parasite larvae per gram of muscle tissue."

https://www.merckvetmanual.com/generalized-conditions/trichinellosis/trichinellosis-in-animals

#Trichinellosis #Trichinosis #nematodes #ThingILearnedToday

New publication: #Nematodes vector #bacteriophages in #compost and #soil. #hitchhiking #dispersal #soil
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2025.109785

Graphical abstract Van Sluijs et al. (2025).

🐛💻 In a stunning display of scientific #ambition, researchers are breathlessly touting the #simulation of nematode brains—because, apparently, failing for 25 years wasn't enough! 🤯✨ At this rate, we're only a few millennia away from simulating something as complex as a goldfish, but hey, dream big or go home, right? 🐟🚀
https://asteriskmag.com/issues/09/we-can-must-and-will-simulate-nematode-brains #scientificinnovation #nematodes #research #techhumor #brainresearch #HackerNews #ngated

#Biopesticide #NematophagousFungi #Nematodes #PineWiltDisease #PinewoodNematode
https://mastodon.social/@David1822/113912440584758013

Scientists discover how cyst #nematodes attack #sugar_beet #crops.

#roots #agriculture #parasites #pathology #HD_ZIP_III #transcription_factor

https://phys.org/news/2025-02-scientists-cyst-nematodes-sugar-beet.html

Mapping #Antarctica's hidden ice-free lands: A blueprint for conservation https://phys.org/news/2025-01-antarctica-hidden-ice-free-blueprint.html paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-025-04424-y

"The ice-free lands are home to uniquely adapted flora including micro-forests of #lichens, #moss, and two flowering plants, Antarctic hairgrass and pearlwort. They also sustain a variety of #mites, #springtails, #tardigrades, #nematodes, #algae, and #microbes. #Seabirds have established breeding colonies in these areas too."