WOrM Podcast: Whole Organism Analytics Podcast16 Huhti 2025

EPISODE 9: Divergent Diets, Divergent Defences – Intestinal Evolution in C. elegans and P. pacificus

How does a nematode’s feeding strategy shape its gut biology and disease resistance? In this episode, we explore a comparative gut transcriptomics study of Caenorhabditis elegans and Pristionchus pacificus that reveals how changes in anatomy and lifestyle have led to major shifts in gene expression and pathogen susceptibility.

We discuss:

Why P. pacificus lacks the grinder structure and how this changes its digestion
What makes their intestinal gene expression profiles so divergent, despite being close relatives
The role of Hedgehog signalling and lineage-specific genes in intestinal development
Surprising findings on gut pH stability despite transcriptomic divergence
How these factors shape resistance to pathogens and environmental adaptation

📖 Based on the research article:

“Comparative transcriptomics of the nematode gut identifies global shifts in feeding mode and pathogen susceptibility”

James W. Lightfoot, Veeren M. Chauhan, Jonathan W. Aylott & Christian Rödelsperger.

Published in BMC Research Notes (2016).

🔗 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-016-1886-9

🎧 Subscribe to the WoRM Podcast for more on nematode evolution, gut biology, and systems-level research.

This podcast is generated with artificial intelligence and curated by Veeren. If you’d like your publication featured on the show, please get in touch.

📩 More info:

🔗 ⁠www.veerenchauhan.com⁠

📧 veeren.chauhan@nottingham.ac.uk

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Jaksot(53)

EPISODE 53: Worms on Pause

Welcome to the next episode of the WOrM Podcast 🪱⏸️Today, we are talking about worms that appear to stop living—without dying.Researchers have identified a new, reversible state of suspended animatio...

5 Elo 26min

EPISODE 52: Worms in Space: Microbiomes in a Capsule

Welcome to the next episode of the WOrM Podcast 🪱🚀Today, we are looking at NemaCapsules: a new microfluidic system designed to study how host genetics and the gut microbiome influence C. elegans hea...

29 Heinä 21min

EPISODE 51: The Worm Behind the Wild

Welcome to the next episode of the WOrM Podcast 🪱Today we’re looking at a review with a bold idea.Can a tiny nematode help us protect fish, amphibians, reptiles and insects from an increasingly chall...

22 Heinä 16min

EPISODE 50: Fed by Mum, Built by Ribosomes

Welcome to the next episode of the WOrM Podcast 🪱Today we’re talking about inheritance.Not DNA.Not small RNAs.Not epigenetics.But ribosomes.⸻🧬 The central ideaWhen mother worms experience dietary re...

15 Heinä 20min

EPISODE 49: Glowing up the Worm Proteome

Welcome to the next episode of the WOrM Podcast 🪱Today we’re looking at a paper that doesn’t answer a biological question.Instead, it builds the tools to answer thousands of biological questions in t...

8 Heinä 21min

EPISODE 48: Murder Mode: How a Worm Evolved the Urge to Kill

Welcome to the next episode of the WOrM Podcast 🪱Today we're talking about a worm with teeth.And a nervous system that has been rewired — by evolution — to become aggressive.⸻🧬 The central ideaPrist...

6 Touko 14min

EPISODE 47: When Bacteria Fight Back: Bioplastic Kills the Worm

Welcome to the next episode of the WOrM Podcast 🪱Today we’re talking about something unexpected.A bioplastic — something we usually think of as sustainable, useful, even beneficial —can kill a worm.⸻...

29 Huhti 21min

EPISODE 46: Turning in Time: Neural Sequences in the Worm Brain

Welcome to the next episode of the WOrM Podcast 🪱Today we’re looking at something deceptively simple: a turn.But not just that a worm turns —how the brain decides to do it.⸻🧬 The central ideaTurning...

22 Huhti 19min