Starvation of adult Caenorhabditis elegans and its effect on health and reproduction

Abstract

The effect of varying the amount of food on the health of Caenorhabditis elegans was examined. Our alternate hypothesis stated that a decreased initial quantity of Escherichia coli would increase the number of starved C. elegans after nine days. Plates were prepared with three different amounts of E. coli: 400 µL, 200 µL, and 100 µL. Counts of adults starved and living, juveniles and eggs were done on the seventh and ninth day after transfer onto the treatment plates. There were no starved C. elegans observed on day seven. On day nine the mean count of live C. elegans for the three treatments 400 µL, 200 µL and 100 µL were 4.78 ± 1.53, 0.78 ± 0.67, and 0.00 ± 0.00 respectively. The mean count of starved C. elegans for the three treatments 400 µL, 200 µL and 100 µL were 4.11 ± 2.35, 11.78 ± 6.25 and 19.00 ± 9.23. The results showed a significant difference among all three treatments when considering the live C. elegans, and a significant difference in starved C. elegans counts between the 100 µL and 400 µL treatments. We rejected the null hypothesis and our alternate hypothesis was supported by our data. The literature has supporting arguments for our data stating that a decrease in food availability has a negative effect whether or not the organism was healthy or showed signs of being starved. Behavioural effects are shown in the literature as causing further problems in obtaining nutrition.