Abstract
Abstract We fed adult Caenorhabditis elegans fluorescent microspheres mixed with their Escherichia coli food and then measured the total fluorescence of expelled faeces as a function of time after transfer to unlabelled bacteria. Intestinal clearance obeys a simple first-order decay or dilution curve: we estimate that 43 ± 10% of the maximum intestinal volume is expelled in each defecation and the average residence time of a bead (by inference, a bacterium) is less than 2 min. Our results raise questions how bacteria can be sufficiently digested in this brief period to provide energy and material to sustain the high rate of C. elegans oocyte production.
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