Do they live longer in their nutrient rich broth vs. living in dirt?
The life span of C. elegans on Earth in the rich nutrient broth is much longer than the life span when they are grown on agar plates with bacteria as a food source and even longer than when the C. elegans live in dirt. Things that can influence life span include food availability and temperature. The animals living in dirt experience more temperature fluctuations and a more varied, sometimes less adequate food source than animals in the lab. Even in the lab, the bacteria on the cultured plates only live for 1 – 2 weeks and then the C. elegans would need to be moved to a fresh plate. The liquid nutrient broth used for ICE provides everything that the C. elegans need to allow them to live for three months or more, whereas the standard life span on a petri dish or free-living in the soil would be two to three weeks. Do we know how active they are normally during day and/or evening hours? If we did, did we know what to expect in a confined space? C. elegans have the same activity during th
