Salt chemotaxis and its plasticity in hermaphroditic nematodes.

Salt chemotaxis in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has been used as a model to study chemosensation, behavior, and learning and memory. To investigate whether other nematode species could serve as alternative models, we examined salt chemotaxis plasticity in five androdioecious nematode species- Caenorhabditis briggsae , Caenorhabditis tropicalis , Oscheius myriophilus , Oscheius tipulae , and Pristionchus pacificus -all isolated as wild type. Most strains exhibited salt chemotaxis plasticity similar to that of C. elegans , underscoring the biological importance of this ability and supporting their potential use in future research on salt chemotaxis.