ArticleCurrent biology : CB2023
Body stiffness is a mechanical property that facilitates contact-mediated mate recognition in Caenorhabditis elegans.
Article in Current biology : CB, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 38 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sexual dimorphism in the nervous system: Three principles from the nematode C.elegans.Current opinion in neurobiology · 2026Review
- Multiscale patterning of a model apical extracellular matrix revealed by systematic endogenous protein tagging.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Surface Lipids in Nematodes are Influenced by Development and Species-specific Adaptations.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2025Article
- Anoctamin-1 is a core component of a mechanosensory anion channel complex in C. elegans.Nature communications · 2025Article
- The Pax transcription factor EGL-38 links EGFR signaling to assembly of a cell type-specific apical extracellular matrix in the Caenorhabditis elegans vulva.Developmental biology · 2025Article
- The Pax transcription factor EGL-38 links EGFR signaling to assembly of a cell-type specific apical extracellular matrix in thebioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Caenorhabditis elegans Hedgehog-related proteins are tissue- and substructure-specific components of the cuticle and precuticle.Genetics · 2024Article
- The Caenorhabditis elegans cuticle and precuticle: a model for studying dynamic apical extracellular matrices in vivo.Genetics · 2024Review
- C. elegans males optimize mate-preference decisions via sex-specific responses to multimodal sensory cues.Current biology : CB · 2024Article
- ADARs regulate cuticle collagen expression and promote survival to pathogen infection.BMC biology · 2024Article
- Adult-specific collagen COL-19 is dispensable for contact-mediated mate recognition inmicroPublication biology · 2024Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Physical contact is prevalent in the animal kingdom to recognize suitable mates by decoding information about sex, species, and maturity. Although chemical cues for mate recognition have been extensively studied, the role of mechanical cues remains elusive. Here, we show that C. elegans males recognize conspecific and reproductive mates through short-range cues, and that the attractiveness of potential mates depends on the sex and developmental stages of the hypodermis. We find that a particular group of cuticular collagens is required for mate attractiveness. These collagens maintain body stiffness to sustain mate attractiveness but do not affect the surface properties that evoke the initial step of mate recognition, suggesting that males utilize multiple sensory mechanisms to recognize suitable mates. Manipulations of body stiffness via physical interventions, chemical treatments, and 3D-printed bionic worms indicate that body stiffness is a mechanical property for mate recognition and increases mating efficiency. Our study thus extends the repertoire of sensory cues of mate recognition in C. elegans and provides a paradigm to study the important roles of mechanosensory cues in social behaviors.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.