Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 1, 2026

Using Single-Worm Data to Quantify Heterogeneity in Caenorhabditis elegans-Bacterial Interactions
Published on: July 22, 2022
Dynamics of bacterial communities in cockles (Cerastoderma edule) with respect to trematode parasite (Bucephalus
Guillaume Meisterhans1, Natalie Raymond, Solène Lebreton
1Université de Bordeaux UMR 5805 EPOC, Station Marine d'Arcachon, 2 rue du Pr Jolyet, 33120 Arcachon, France. g.meisterhans@epoc.u-bordeaux1.fr
Abstract:
The bacterial communities associated with the cockle (Cerastoderma edule) were investigated at the individual level through a 10-month monitoring programme. Temporal changes and those changes associated with a common parasite of the cockle, Bucephalus minimus, were investigated by monthly sampling of individuals, selected based on their shell length (cohort monitoring). Cockle bacterial community abundance (CBCA) and diversity (CBCD) were estimated by epifluorescence microscopy counts and automated ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis, respectively. CBCA showed a temporal pattern peaking at 30 × 10(6) cells per gram of cockle flesh and intervalval liquid in October and a significant 1.8-fold increase linked with B. minimus occurrence. CBCD was characterized by 112 ± 26 intergenic transcribed spacer (ITS) per individual and showed a relative homology between individuals (52 ± 6%, Jaccard similarity) in spite of more than 30% of rare ITS. Consistent with an undisturbed evolution of the condition index of the studied cohort individuals as an estimate of their physiological state, neither temporal nor parasite-induced change in CBCA has been related to marked changes in CBCD.
Related Concept Videos
Marine Microbial Ecology
Microbial Interactions: Cooperation
Diversity of Protists II
Microbial Interactions: Parasitism
Microbial Interactions: Predation
Diversity of Protists I

