The Impact of Bacterial Diet on the Migration and Navigation of 'Caenorhabditis elegans'

Can diet have a significant impact on the ability of organisms to sense and locate food? Focusing on the bacterial feeder 'Caenorhabditis elegans', we investigated what effect preconditioning on a range of bacterial substrates had on the subsequent chemotaxis process involved in the nematode locating other bacterial populations. Remarkably, we found that 'C. elegans', initially fed on a diet of 'Escherichia coli' OP50, was significantly impaired in finding 'E. coli' OP50 populations, compared to other available bacterial populations (P < 0.001). We found similar results for another bacterial feeding nematode species, suggesting that a general "substrate legacy" may operate across a wide range of organisms. We discuss this important finding with respect to the variation in response exhibited within a given nematode population, and the impact nematode migration has on bacterial dispersal in the environment.