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Abstract

he nematode Pristionchus pacificus has been established as a satellite
organism to Caenorhabditis elegans. Three years ago not much had been
known about the lifecycle and ecology of Pristionchus in nature. The few
species and strains cultured in the lab hab been isolated from soil. There were
some hints that the nematodes could be insect-associated. Field sampling
could not only verify this hypothesis but led also to the isolation of hundreds of
strains in more than a dozen species.
Pristionchus species are necromenic i.e. resting on insects in dauer stage until
the insect dies and then growing adult and reproducing, feeding on bacteria,
fungi and insect tissue.
However, in contrast to other Pristionchus species, Pristionchus pacificus
could be found only in few cases and on various insects. The geografic origin
and insect „host“ remained unknown. The closest relative of P. pacificus was
isolated from japanese soil so we came to Japan to perform a large scale field
screen and hopefully find our favourite model organism. Please be curious
about the whole Pristionchus story and some preliminary results of the
JapanFieldScreenProject!