Last news on SAMPLING

The diversity of Caenorhabditis is just starting to be uncovered, and we likely have only scratched the surface. And remember that the cash and naming prize for the C. elegans sister species is - unfortunately - still not claimed. So please SAMPLE and share!

For sampling methods, see: WormMethod chapter by Barrière and Félix, Andersen lab.

For information on geographic distribution, sample origin and availability:

consult the WORLD MAP (curation is underway, please contribute your strain information - see below)

or enter the strain name in Wormbase, for example NIC42

or consult the following strain databases: CGC Cutter lab map Braendle lab Felix lab.

PLEASE CONTRIBUTE YOUR STRAIN INFORMATION

Submit your wild strain information using the format at Wormbase through http://tazendra.caltech.edu/~azurebrd/cgi-bin/forms/wild_isolate.cgi or by downloading the present table at http://worldwideworm.banshy.fr/ to fill in the required fields. E-mail the information to genenames@wormbase.org, copying to david.fitch@nyu.edu and wormstrain@biologie.ens.fr (Felix lab) for integration in the Rhabditina database (http://128.122.60.136/fmi/iwp/cgi?-db=RhabditinaDB&-loadframes) and the world map (http://worldwideworm.banshy.fr/). This does not mean that you need to send the strain to CGC. CGC now requires a justification for taking up new strains in the CGC collection; for new species, they agreed to take a reference non-inbred isolate & the genome-sequenced inbred strain.

NEWS

Braendle lab

2016:

Taiwan: C. briggsae, C. sinica, C. tropicalis (Charlie Gosse)

Switzerland: C. briggsae, C. remanei, C. sp. 8 (CB)

India: C. brenneri (Vishnu Saraswathy)

2015:

French Guiana: C. brenneri, C. briggsae, C. nouraguensis, C. tropicalis, C. sp. 24, C. sp. 42 (CB & Asher Cutter)

Madagascar: C. briggsae, C. tropicalis, C. sp. 21, C. sp. 26 (Clotilde Gimond)

Peru: C. elegans, C. tropicalis, C. briggsae, C. brenneri, C. sp. 31, C. sp. 46 (new gonochoristic species), C. sp. 47 (new gonochoristic species) (CB)

Taiwan: C. tropicalis, C. briggsae, C. sp. 50 (Charlie Gosse)

2014: Busy year with hundreds of new isolates, including four new species. Fun. Thanks to all samplers - and team members who helped out with freezing.

Spain: C. elegans, C. portoensis

New Caledonia: C. briggsae (Claude Pasquier)

Guadeloupe: C. briggsae, C. tropicalis, C. guadeloupensis (Nausicaa Poullet)

Dominica: C. brenneri, C. briggsae, C. tropicalis, C. sp. 38, C. sp. 39 (NIC564, new F/M species), C. sp. 45 (NIC759, new F/M species)

Taiwan: C. brenneri, C. briggsae, C. nigoni, C. sinica, C. tropicalis, C. sp. 33 (Charlie Gosse, Christian Braendle, John Wang)

Japan: C. briggsae (Charlie Gosse)

French Guiana: C. brenneri, C. briggsae, C. nouraguensis, C. tropicalis, C. sp. 24, C. sp. 42 (NIC1040, new F/M species) (Asher Cutter, Christian Braendle)

Colombia: C. briggsae (Romain Salle)

Switzerland (Lucerne, Schwyz, Zug): C. briggsae, C. remanei, C. sp. 8

Mexico (Yucatan): C. briggsae, C. sp. 43 (NIC1070, new F/M species) (Charlie Gosse, Deborah Bourc’his, Julien Dumont)

Hungary (Budapest): C. briggsae, C. sp. 8

Austria (Velden): C. remanei

France (La Coucourde): C. briggsae France (Toulouse): C. elegans,C. briggsae France (Nice): C. elegans (Anne Vielle, Paul Vigne)

2013:

- Châtenay-Malabry, France (near Paris): C. elegans, C. briggsae and C. remanei

- Naples, Italy: C. elegans, C. briggsae

- Lisbon, Portugal: C. elegans

- Taiwan: C. briggsae, C. sp. 11, C. sp. 5 (sampling by Charlie Gosse - merci!)

Félix lab

2016:

- C. elegans from Cameroon (Jean David)

- C. elegans and C. portoensis from Sicily, Italy

- C. nigoni and C. briggsae from Mauritius (Henrique Teotonio)

2015:

- Start of the hunt for Mesorhabditis

- C. elegans and C. briggsae from Florence, Italy (MAF)

- Michael Wilson sent us a C. elegans isolate from New Zealand, isolated from a slug (JU2841)

- C. briggsae from Barcelona, Spain (MAF)

- C. remanei from Turkey (Cigdem Alkan)

- C. sp. 1 from Norway (MAF)

- C. sp. 24, C. elegans and C. briggsae from Mexico (Amhed Vargas Velazquez)

- C. sp. 24, C. elegans and C. briggsae from UCLA (MAF @IWM2015!)

- C. elegans from Pinhao, Portugal

- C. briggsae from Ouro Preto, Brazil

- C. elegans and C. briggsae from Cambridge, UK (MAF)

- C. briggsae from Vienna, Austria (MAF)

2014:

- C. nigoni from Yucatan, Mexico (MAF)

- C. remanei from Seoul, Korea and Cologne, Germany (MAF)

- C. elegans from San Diego, California (Sarah Marsh)

- C. briggsae, C. tropicalis and a strain close to C. angaria (new F/M species: sp. 38) from Guadeloupe (Fabrice Besnard)

- C. sp. 21 from Martinique (Fabrice Besnard)

- C. virilis from two samples that were likely feces from a fow or a marten, in Longueville, a second location for this species in the vicinity of Paris (MAF)

- C. briggsae from Armenia (MAF)

- C. briggsae and several strains of a new sp. 40 in the sp. 5/ sp. 26 clade from Australia (Jean-Baptiste Pénigault)

- New C. elegans and C. briggsae from various regions of France (lab)

2013: The fall 2013 was very rainy and busy, with sampling of lots of C. elegans, C. briggsae and associated organisms from France by Lise Frézal, Sarah Marsh and MAF. Be prepared to pronounce "Crouy-sur-Ourcq" as a new location. The Orsay virus was finally found again by Lise in Ivry near Paris. Sarah established a collection of bacteria isolated from C. elegans and C. briggsae, presumably most from their guts. Marie-Anne isolated an oomycete infecting C. elegans, identified by 18S as a Myzocytiopsis sp. (for those who like her have no clue what oomycetes are, they are related to brown algae and diatoms).

And thanks to many samplers, in the last year we isolated:

- a new species C. sp. 31 from Peru, with a beautiful male tail, as well as some C. briggsae and C. elegans from Peru

- C. briggsae from Mayotte

- a sp. 9 from Sao Tome, extending the Afro-Asian equatorial distribution of this species (from W to E: Sao Tome, Congo, Seychelles, Kerala, Singapore)

- a second C. elegans isolate from Greece

- a new collection of C. elegans from the botanical garden of Lisbon, Portugal

- a sp. 11 from Costa Rica

- C. remanei from Strasbourg ... and from near Paris (thanks to Christian Braendle's prior finding)

- and finally sp. 6 again (after Michael Ailion first found it in Portugal) near Paris and in Ireland, all in rotting apples.

Conclusion: we are far from having sampled the Paris region to saturation, finding two more species this year, adding up to five (Cel, Cbr, Cre, spp. 13 and 6). Nouragues in French Guiana still holds the species diversity record with six species in a smaller area.

Tell us if you are interested in some of these isolates (here is our current collection of isolates, not yet including the most recent, nor our collection of C. elegans kept as potential heterozygotes by freezing the whole progeny of each wild P0 individual).

Cutter lab

Sampling news 2014

- Koffler Scientific Reserve (near Toronto, Canada): C. remanei found commonly in May on isopods (Porcellio, Oniscus), but very rare June-August

- French Guiana, Parare station in Nouragues reserve (with C. Braendle): 200 opportunistic samples collected, 300 orange bait samples collected, preliminary looks suggest approx 120 strains of Caenorhabditis (both hermaphrodite and dioecious)

Ailion lab

2015:

- C. nigoni from rotting almond and nutmeg, Banda Besar, Indonesia (Nicolle Esparo)

2014:

- C. elegans, C. briggsae from Kauai, Hawaii. All elegans strains came from higher elevations and briggsae from low elevation. From various unidentified wild fruits and berries. (Michael Ailion)

- C. remanei from Seattle, Washington, rotting snowberries and Jack-in-the-pulpit berries. (Jill Hoyt, Piero Lamelza)