Worm Breeder's Gazette 1(2): 25a
These abstracts should not be cited in bibliographies. Material contained herein should be treated as personal communication and should be cited as such only with the consent of the author.
Nematodes are strongly attracted towards E. coli (1). The movement of a population of nematodes from the center of an agar plate towards bacteria at the circumference can be quantitatively analyzed by a sequence of first order rates (2,3), analogous to radioactive decay. Thus, individual nematodes under these conditions do not behave identically. As time goes on, the nematodes remaining at the center will be slower and slower (viz: Dave Hirsh's question, last Newsletter) . Rate constants for leaving the center and the intermediate zone are unique for different mutants. The method may be used as an enrichment technique for paralyzed as well as for chemotaxis-defective mutants.