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DARKER MOTIVES. “The team also plans to continue deconstructing the language they have found among nematodes. For example, Sternberg wonders, how many different combinations of chemicals mean "food," or "mate," or "attack"? If the scientists can crack the code in terms of what different blends mean to different species, they can begin to interfere with the actions of the nematodes that wreak havoc across the world—leading to better eradication of plant pests, as well as human and animal parasites.” https://lnkd.in/d6Gc9fp View in LinkedIn

POISONED BUT NOT UNDERSTOOD. Despite the fact that nematodes (a type of worm) are immensely prevalent, and gather in large communities to mate and feed, barely a single publication can be found on how they communicate with one another. We barely give them credit for their complex societies. More is known about how to poison them that about their ecology. https://lnkd.in/efXjHUb View in LinkedIn

THE MOLECULAR HEART. "We can now say that many—maybe all—nematodes are communicating by secreting small molecules to build chemical structures called ascarosides," says Sternberg, whose past research in C. elegans found that those worms secrete ascarosides both as a sexual attractant and as a way to control the social behavior of aggregation. "It's really exciting and a big breakthrough that tells us what to look for and how we, too, might be able to communicate with this entire phylum of animals." https://lnkd.in/d6Gc9fp View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE. We are far from cracking the language of birds, dolphins, whales and monkeys, despite their overt vocalizations. It turns out that we know more about ant, bacterial and worm communication than all those other big creatures put together. It is inherently true that any creature with a complex society must have an associated language. It turns out, surprising to some, that worm-speak has both syntax and modular structure. View in LinkedIn

ALPHABET SIZE UNKNOWN. “The researchers have only just begun to identify what these messages are. As you heard, adding one more chemical to the signal for “go away” changes the meaning to “come here.” It's still unknown how big the worms' “alphabet” of signaling chemicals is, or how many different chemicals may be used in a single message. It's clear, though, that worm language may be extremely different from ours, but it's built on one similar principle, which is that it's better to rearrange a smaller set of signals than to come up with a new signal for everything you want to say.” https://lnkd.in/eQAQ5eZ View in LinkedIn

WORM SYNTAX. “Scientists already knew that nematodes communicate with each other using chemical signals. This study, however, found that those chemicals have their own syntax, or rules for arranging elements into different meanings. In other words, the worms don't just use one chemical for each possible message. They combine two, three, or more chemicals at a time, and each combination has a different meaning, just like letters and words.” https://lnkd.in/eQAQ5eZ View in LinkedIn

DECODING MOLECULAR CHATTER. “As a next step, the researchers will explore how the worms' nervous system senses and deciphers the different chemical messages. "Understanding the worm's language is just a first step -- we now need to figure out how the worm decodes and makes these molecules.” https://lnkd.in/eaB_YWn View in LinkedIn

CHEMICAL LANGUAGE. “These results show that by combining molecules that include different types of chemical building blocks, worms have developed a sophisticated chemical language that they use to organize their communities. The discovery provides a new window into the chemistry of life and suggests that many other animal species including vertebrates may produce similar signaling molecules to control behavior and other biological functions.” https://lnkd.in/eaB_YWn View in LinkedIn

MUTES AND COMMUNICATORS. “Schroeder and his team used a new analytical method called comparative metabolomics to analyze the chemicals made by worms. By comparing the body chemistry of normal, wild-type worms with the chemistry of worms that have a signaling defect, i.e., "worms that can't talk," the researchers detected molecules that were only present in wild-type worms, but not in "silent" worms. These molecules then turned out to form the "language of the worm." https://lnkd.in/eaB_YWn View in LinkedIn

COMBINATORIAL LANGUAGE. “The researchers found several molecules that tell nematodes to scatter and disperse. These molecules consist of only two building blocks. But adding a third building block called an indole changes the meaning completely: instead of "go away" the message becomes "everybody come here." Nematode messages get even more complex by combining two or more different molecules, just like combining different words in a sentence makes for more complex meaning.” https://lnkd.in/eaB_YWn View in LinkedIn