Dual-use Sexual Attraction And Population-control Chemicals Found In Nematodes

Organisms ranging from humans to plants to the lowliest bacterium use molecules to communicate. Caltech researchers have now found a rare kind of signaling molecule in the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans that serves a dual purpose, working as both a population-control mechanism and a sexual attractant. The discovery could lead to new ways to control parasitic nematodes, which affect the health of more than a billion people and cause billions of dollars in crop damage.

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