TY - JOUR TI - Shared behavioral mechanisms underlie C. elegans aggregation and swarming AU - Ding, Siyu Serena AU - Schumacher, Linus J AU - Javer, Avelino E AU - Endres, Robert G AU - Brown, André EX A2 - Barkai, Naama A2 - Mignot, Tâm A2 - Hodgkin, Jonathan A2 - Igoshin, Oleg A VL - 8 PY - 2019 DA - 2019/04/25 SP - e43318 C1 - eLife 2019;8:e43318 DO - 10.7554/eLife.43318 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.43318 AB - In complex biological systems, simple individual-level behavioral rules can give rise to emergent group-level behavior. While collective behavior has been well studied in cells and larger organisms, the mesoscopic scale is less understood, as it is unclear which sensory inputs and physical processes matter a priori. Here, we investigate collective feeding in the roundworm C. elegans at this intermediate scale, using quantitative phenotyping and agent-based modeling to identify behavioral rules underlying both aggregation and swarming—a dynamic phenotype only observed at longer timescales. Using fluorescence multi-worm tracking, we quantify aggregation in terms of individual dynamics and population-level statistics. Then we use agent-based simulations and approximate Bayesian inference to identify three key behavioral rules for aggregation: cluster-edge reversals, a density-dependent switch between crawling speeds, and taxis towards neighboring worms. Our simulations suggest that swarming is simply driven by local food depletion but otherwise employs the same behavioral mechanisms as the initial aggregation. KW - quantitative behavior KW - collective behavior KW - animal tracking KW - agent-based modeling KW - aggregation KW - swarming JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -