Molecular barcodes -- identification of 16 new species of Caenorhabditis
Caenorhabditis are usually thought of as soil nematodes, happily living in compost heaps. The famous (scientifically speaking) Caenorhabditis elegans has provided a wealth of information about developmental processes and cell death. These tiny worms have been at the forefront of three Nobel prizes and have even been sent into space! However all other known Caenorhabditis species are as distantly related to C. elegans as mouse is to man. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology looked at the relationship between the ten known species of Caenorhabditis and found another 16. In the process it was discovered that these particular nematodes prefer to live in rotting fruit and vegetation rather than soil.