Worm Facts

• SIZE: the thickness of an eye lash and one millimeter (1/250^th of an inch) long.
• COLOR: transparent.
• HABITAT: compost heaps.
• FOOD:  bacteria that it sucks up using a muscular pump near its head.
• LIFE CYCLE: it takes three-and-a-half days at room temperature for a fertilized egg to develop into a reproductive adult.
• LIFE SPAN: two weeks; after that it literally begins to fall apart; when food is scarce it begins producing a special type of larvae that can live for several months without feeding.
• GENES: 20,000; in 1998 it was the first multi-cellular organism to have its genome fully sequenced.
• DEVELOPMENT – the only multi-cellular organism for which development has been completely mapped; cell divisions occur the same way every time; every cell division from the first division of the fertilized egg until the last cell is added during larval development is known.
• CELLS: 959 somatic cells; there are actually fewer cells in the adult because skin cells and some others fuse to form multi-nucleated cells during development.
• ORGANIZATION: cells are organized into familiar tissues or organs, including a nervous system, digestive tract, reproductive system, excretory system, even a primitive heart.
• NERVOUS SYSTEM: 302 neurons; although it doesn't have a brain, a majority of the neurons are clustered in the head region.
• REPRODUCTION: two modes of sexual reproduction: hermaphroditic (sperm and eggs provided by the same animal) and male/hermaphrodite mating (sperm from male, eggs from hermaphrodite); each worm produces about 250 offspring so one animal can produce over 60,000 grandchildren in just one week.
• MOVEMENT: wild-types spend ¾ of their time moving forward and ¼ backward; researchers have found uncoordinated (unc) mutants that cannot move backwards at all or that roll continually as they move.

The WormBase website allows you to view different cross-sections of C. elegans by moving a slider up and down a schematic view of the worm.