EPISODE 14: Love at First Touch – Worms Feel Their Way to Romance

EPISODE 14: Love at First Touch – Worms Feel Their Way to Romance

In this episode, we uncover how Caenorhabditis elegans males pick the right mate — by literally feeling for it!

Researchers discovered that body stiffness, controlled by special furrow collagens, acts as a key mechanical cue for contact-mediated mate recognition.


We discuss:


  • How males detect species, sex, and reproductive stage through touch

  • Why body stiffness and surface signals must work together for successful mating

  • Experiments using ruptured worms, chemical treatments, and even 3D-printed bionic worms to test mechanical cues

  • Why mating is not just about scent or sight — it’s about how a partner feels



📖 Based on the research article:

“Body stiffness is a mechanical property that facilitates contact-mediated mate recognition in Caenorhabditis elegans”

Jen-Wei Weng, Heenam Park, Claire Valotteau, Nathalie Pujol, Paul W. Sternberg & Chun-Hao Chen.

Published in Current Biology (2023).

🔗 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2023.07.020



🎧 Subscribe to the WoRM Podcast for more quirky stories at the crossroads of mechanics, behaviour, and evolution!


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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Episoder(53)

EPISODE 53: Worms on Pause

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 Aug 26min

EPISODE 52: Worms in Space: Microbiomes in a Capsule

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 Jul 21min

EPISODE 51: The Worm Behind the Wild

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 Jul 16min

EPISODE 50: Fed by Mum, Built by Ribosomes

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 Jul 20min

EPISODE 49: Glowing up the Worm Proteome

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 Jul 21min

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

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 Mai 14min

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

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 Apr 21min

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

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 Apr 19min

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