Calcium signalling makes worms poop

Who would have thought that worm poop actually had a purpose.
Published: January 10, 2013, 4:53 pm
Updated: 1 year ago

A study published by Current Biology states that scientists have found a way to define a mechanism for regulating calcium signalling: Worm poo.

Everyday worms create their own body weigh in embryos, requiring them to consume an immense amount to calories. Like all animals though, their food is eventually transformed into waste and must be pushed out of the body.

Because of this, worms poop a lot. Believe it or not, they actually expel feces from their bodies about every 50 seconds. Talk about binging. This process is extremely important to the worm’s health and heavily relies on a sequence of events that starts with a jump in calcium cells at the end of the worm’s intestines. This spike causes calcium to spread through the intestine, causing muscle contractions and forcing the worm to poop.

A specific molecule, called microRNA, stops the worm from continuously pooping and is inside the worms intestinal cells and activates the movement of feces through its body. When the team of researches removed MicroRNA from the worms body, it’s waste cycle became irregular.

Who would have thought that poop is so important to worms?

Follow me on Twitter: @Patrick_ORourke.


LAST UPDATED 2 years ago



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