TY - JOUR AU - Dirksen, Philipp AU - Marsh, Sarah Arnaud AU - Braker, Ines AU - Heitland, Nele AU - Wagner, Sophia AU - Nakad, Rania AU - Mader, Sebastian AU - Petersen, Carola AU - Kowallik, Vienna AU - Rosenstiel, Philip AU - Félix, Marie-Anne AU - Schulenburg, Hinrich PY - 2016 DA - 2016/05/09 TI - The native microbiome of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans: gateway to a new host-microbiome model JO - BMC Biology SP - 38 VL - 14 IS - 1 AB - Host-microbe associations underlie many key processes of host development, immunity, and life history. Yet, none of the current research on the central model species Caenorhabditis elegans considers the worm’s natural microbiome. Instead, almost all laboratories exclusively use the canonical strain N2 and derived mutants, maintained through routine bleach sterilization in monoxenic cultures with an E. coli strain as food. Here, we characterize for the first time the native microbiome of C. elegans and assess its influence on nematode life history characteristics. SN - 1741-7007 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-016-0258-1 DO - 10.1186/s12915-016-0258-1 ID - Dirksen2016 ER -