Figure 1

C. elegans in the wild. Félix and Duveau discovered thriving populations of Caenorhabditis nematodes (and other organisms) in rotting apples in Orsay orchard, near Paris, France (left image). By isolating these mixed cultures (lower right), and then establishing pure strains of nematode (upper right), they identified both C. elegans and C. briggsae as common components of the apple rot communities. Images from Marie-Anne Félix (left, lower right) and Mark Blaxter (upper right).