Caenorhabditis elegans

Caenorhabditis elegans	Contents	Rev 10/12/2026
	Classification	Biology and Ecology
	Morphology and Anatomy	Life Cycle
Return to Caenorhabditis Menu		Ecosystem Functions and Services
	Distribution	Management
Return to Rhabditidae Menu	Feeding	References
	Go to Nemaplex Main Menu	Go to Dictionary of Terminology

Rhabditoidea

Rhabditidae

Caenorhabditis elegans (Maupas, 1900) Dougherty, 1955

Caenorhabditis elegans was initially described and named Rhabditis elegans by Maupas (1900) who collected it from rich humus soil in Algeria (north Africa) (Fatt, 1961); it was subsequently placed in the subgenus Caenorhabditis by Osche (1952) and then raised to generic status by Dougherty (1955).

The name is a blend of Greek and Latin (Caeno, recent; rhabditis, rod-like; elegans, elegant).

Emile Maupas

Victor Nigon

Ellsworth C. Dougherty

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Morphology and Anatomy:

Self-fertilizing protandrous hermaphrodites predominate in a population.
Stoma long and tubular, cuticle lined, constricted inward at the posterior end in three bulges, each with two widely-spaced teeth.
Hermaphrodite tail elongate, conical, with paired postanal phasmids.
Hermaphrodite is digonic with vulva at about 51% of body length. Length 1250-1400 um. width 70-90 um.
Male slender with bursa supported by three groups of three rays on each side; paired spicules are not fused at tips. Length 825-890 um. width 45-50 um.

Sources: Fatt (1961), Nigon, (1949).

Reported median body size for this species (Length mm; width micrometers; weight micrograms) - Click:

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Distribution:

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Feeding:

Bacteria; laboratory cultures are usually maintained on Escherichia coli OP50 (a gram negative rod-shaped bacterium) maintained on defined media: NGM (= nematode growth medium):

Agar 17.5 g/l
Sodium Chloride 3.0 g/l
Peptone 2.5 g/l
Cholesterol 0.005 g/l (added after autoclaving and cooling to 55C)

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Biology and Ecology:

C. elegans as a Model System:

Much of the recognition for the selection and development of C. elegans as a model system in genetics and developmental biology can be attributed to Ellsworth C. Dougherty. In 1964, while working in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at UC Berkeley and interested in axenic culture of nematodes, Dougherty introduced the idea of using C. elegans to Sydney Brenner and provided him with a culture of the nematode.

Two strains of C. elegans have historical importance. One strain, Bergerac, was collected in 1955 from the garden soil near Bergerac, France, by Victor Nigon of the Universite de Lyon (Nigon 1949; Fatt, 1961), and the other strain, Bristol, was isolated by L.N. Staniland (National Agricultural Advisory Service, London) from mushroom compost near Bristol, England (Nicholas et al. 1959).

Study of development and reproduction of C. elegans was possible because the strains were morphologically identical but physiologically different (Fatt, 1961). The Bergerac strain of C. elegans could not be cultured at temperatures above 18C; at that temperature it became infertile. The Bristol strain can be cultured at temperatures up to 25C, though males will not copulate below 20C (Fatt and Dougherty, 1963; Nicholas, 1975). In several reported cases, rhabditid nematodes seem to be adversely affected by higher temperatures. For example, embryogenesis fails at temperatures of 25C and higher in Rhabditis cucumeris isolated from soil in the Central Valley of California (Venette and Ferris, 1997).

Figure from Ankeny, 2001

Sydney Brenner obtained his culture of the Bristol strain of C. elegans from Dougherty (Brenner, 1974). Virtually all C. elegans genetics has been done with the Bristol strain, more specifically with the N2 line that Sydney Brenner derived from the Bristol culture he obtained from Ellsworth Dougherty.

Interestingly, until the mid 1970s, people working in developmental biology frequently confused C. briggsae and C. elegans and many of the cultures being used were mis-identified. In the mid 1970s, graduate student Paul Friedman working with Ed Platzer at UC Riverside developed diagnostic biochemical criteria for separating the two species and resolved the confusion (Friedman et al, 1977).

Studies on C. elegans include areas of:

Developmental Biology

Aging

Molecular Biology

Medicine-Drugs

Human Disease Model

Behavior:

Chemotaxis

Nobel prizes in 2002, 2006, 2008 and 2024 were awarded for studies that used C. elegans as a model system.

2002: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for Genetic regulation of organ developmenty and programmed cell death: Sydney Brenner, Robert Horvitz and John Sulston.

2006: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for RNA interference (RNAi) - gene silencing by double-stranded RNA: Andrew Fire and Craig Mello.

2008: Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovery and developmenmt of the green flourescent protein (GFP): Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie and Roger Tsien.

2024: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovery of microRNA and itys role in post-transcriptional gene regulation:Gary Ruvkun and Victor Ambros.

Many of the attributes that ccontribute to the success of C. elegans as a model system are similar to those provided by another model system nematode. Pristionchus pacificus in which considerable research ahs been conducted under the direction of Dr. Ralf Sommer of the Max Plank Institute.

1.Small and Easy to Culture

oCultured on agar and will feed on bacteria or defined nutrient media.

oLarge populations can be maintained at very low cost

oBoth have a non-feeding dauer stage and can be cryopreserved

2.Short Life Cycle

oDevelopment from egg to reproductive adult takes about 3 -5 days.

oThe entire lifespan is only about 2 to 3 weeks.

oGenetic and aging experiments can be conducted in a short interval of time

3.Transparent Body

Green floursecent protein indicating structure and activity of the nervous system in C. elegans

oDirect microscopic observation of cells, organs, and developmental processes in living animals.

oFluorescent markers can be used to track gene expression and cell behavior.

4.Evolutionary and Developmental Biology

oGenome completely sequenced, the fate of every somatic cell has been mapped. Structures comparable but life histories differ

oNeuronal system mapped allowing detailed studies of neural function and behavior.

oAdult hermaphrodites have a fixed number of somatic cells, making developmental studies highly reproducible and comparable.

oMales can be induced for mating, allowing mating experiments and genetic recombination.

oMany mutants and strains exist for each species

oPhenotypic plasticity in development, morphology and evolution of feeding strategies

5.Powerful Genetics

oMutations, RNA interference and CRISPR gene editing can be used easily.

oMany genes have counterparts in humans.

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Life Cycle:

Ecophysiological Parameters:

For Ecophysiological Parameters for this species, click	If species level data are not available, click for genus level parameters

Reproductive Strategies:

In some members of the family Rhabditidae a sequential hermaphroditism occurs. The gonad first produces sperms which are stored in a spermatheca. The gonad then produces oocytes which become fertilized eggs as they pass through the spermatheca.
The process has been studied in most detail in Caenorhabditis elegans. In that species, about 150 sperm are produced in each arm of the gonad and stored in each spermatheca. The number of sperm produced apparently limits the number of offspring produced by the nematode to around 300 (Gems and Riddle, 1996).
True males also occur in a population, but are rare (around 1:1000). The abundance of true males can be increased by culturing the nematodes at higher temperatures (above 25C).
When a hermaphroditic female is mated with several males, as many as1400 progeny may be produced (Kimble and Ward, 1988).

Eggs may hatch within the bodies of older females. The females then die and the juveniles consume bacteria decomposing the female body. This has been thought to occur when the vaginal muscles are no longer strong enough to eject the eggs and is termed endotokia matricida due to the resultant death of the female. In the Caenorhabditis elegans literature, the phenomenon has been termed "bagging" . The hypothesis has been advanced that intra-uterine hatch is a part of the C. elegans life cycle, and complements androdioecy ( the existence of a hermaphrodite population and a male population) and the dauer (a resistant or enduring stage) stage to enhance progeny survival and dispersal under stress. Consequently, per the hypothesis, matricidal hatching, has been perpetuated in C. elegans through evolutionary time as it confers a survival advantage when resources are scarce or conditions unfavorable (Chen & Caswell-Chen, 2003).

Andrassy, I. 1983. A taxonomic review of the suborder Rhabditina (Nematoda: Secernentia). ORSTOM, Paris.
Ankeney, R.A. 2001. The natural history of C. elegans research. Nature Reviews Genetics 2: 474-478. Brenner, S. 1974. The genetics of Caenorhabditis elegans. Genetics 77:71-94.
Brown, A. 2003. In the Beginning Was the Worm. Simon & Schuster, London. 244p. Chen J.; Caswell-Chen E.P. 2003. Why Caenorhabditis elegans adults sacrifice their bodies to progeny. Nematology 5:641-645.
Dougherty, E.C. 1960. Cultivation of aschelminthes, especially rhabditid nematodes. Pp 297-318 in Sasser and Jenkins (eds) Nematology: fundamentals and recent advances. UNC Press, Chapel Hill.
Dougherty, E.C. and H.G. Calhoun. 1948. Possible significance of free-living nematodes in genetic research. Nature 161:29.
Dougherty, E.C. and V. Nigon. 1949. A new species of the free-living nematode genus Rhabditis of interest in comparative physiology and genetics. J. Parasitol. 35: 11. Dougherty, E.C., E.L. Hansen, W.L. Nicholas, J.A. Mollett, and E.A. Yarwood. 1959. Axenic cultivation of Caenorhabditis briggsae (Nematoda: Rhabditidae) with unsupplemented and supplemented chemically defined media. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 77: 176-217.
Fatt, H.V. 1961. Genetic control of maturation and reproduction in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. MA Thesis, University of California, Berkeley. 49p.
Fatt, H.V. and E.C. Dougherty. 1963. Genetic control of differential heat tolerance in two strains of the nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans. Science 141:266-267.
Friedman, P.A., E.G. Platzer, and J.E. Eby. 1977. Species differentiation in C. briggsae and C. elegans. J. Nematol. 9: 197-203. Gems, D. and D. L. Riddle. 1996. Longevity of Caenorhabditis elegans reduced by mating but not gamete production. Nature 379:723-725.
Gochnauer, M.B. and E. McCoy. 1954. Responses of a soil nematode, R. briggsae, to antibiotics. J. Exp. Zool. 125:377-406.
Kimble, J. and S. Ward. 1988. Germ-line development and fertilization. In: W. B. Wood et al. The Nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.
Maupas, E. 1900. Modes et formes de reproduction des Nematodes. Arch, Zool. Exp, et Gen., (3e serie), 8:463-624.
Nicholas, W.L., E.C. Dougherty, and E.L. Hansen. 1959. Axenic cultivation of C. briggsae (Nematoda: Rhabditidae) with chemically undefined supplements; comparative studies with related nematodes. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 77: 218-236. Nigon, V. 1949. Les modalities de la reproduction et le determinisme du sexe chez quelques nematodes libres. Ann. Sci. Nat. Zool. Biol. Anim. 11: 1-132.
Nigon, V. and E.C. Dougherty. 1949. Reproductive patterns and attempts at reciprocal crossing of Rhabditis elegans Maupas, 1900 and Rhabditis briggsae Dougherty and Nigon, 1949 (Nematoda: Rhabditidae). J. Exp Zool, 112:488-503.
Nigon, V. and E.C. Dougherty. 1950. A dwarf mutant of a nematode. A morphological mutant of Rhabditis briggsae, a free-living soil nematode. J. Heredity 41:103-109. Riddle, D.L., T. Blumenthal, B.J. Meyer and J.R. Priess. 1997. C. elegans II. Cold Springs Harbor Press.
Venette, R. C. and H. Ferris. 1997. Thermal constraints to population growth of bacterial-feeding nematodes. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 29:63-74.