Figure 1

Survival of C. elegans developed on different E. coli strains. (A) Survival of N2 nematodes to the innocuous E. coli OP50 strain following development on the pathogenic 536 strain (536/OP50 n = 93 and OP50/OP50 n = 90, independent replicates N = 3). There is no difference in nematodes survival despite the difference in developmental condition indicating that development on the pathogenic 536 strain has no deleterious effect on survival. (B) Survival of N2 nematodes to E. coli 536 strain following development on the pathogenic 536 strain (536/536 n = 80 and OP50/536 n = 80, N = 7). N2 nematodes had a significantly greater survival on strain 536 following development on 536 than on OP50 strains. (C) Survival of N2 nematodes to E. faecalis OG1RF strain following development on E. faecalis OG1RF (OG1RF/OG1RF n = 86, OP50/OG1RF n = 81, N = 3). As seen with E. coli 536, development on E. faecalis OG1RF prior to adults exposure to the same strain significantly increases nematodes survival compared to those developed on OP50 strain. (D) Survival of N2 nematodes to E. faecalis OG1RF strain following development on E. coli 536 (536/OG1RF n = 100 and OP50/OG1RF n = 104, N = 3). Development on E. coli 536 significantly increases survival to E. faecalis OG1RF strain in a similar manner as development on E. faecalis OG1RF, and is thus not due to adaptation to one bacterial strain during nematode development. Graphed: ns: not significant, *: p < 0.05, **: p < 0.01, ***: p < 0.001, ****: p < 0.0001.