All you need to know about the space travelling nematode: a worm like no other

Header image: Nematodes play an important role in all biological systems. Shutterstock

Words by Antoinette Malan, Stellenbosch University and Pia Addison, Stellenbosch University

Nematodes are tiny little creatures that could one day be our space pioneers telling us whether or not we can settle on other planets. They are one of the multicellular organisms that can claim to have been into outer space, and then to have successfully returned to earth.

The reason they are chosen for missions into space is that they are model organisms. Their complete genome sequence is known, and the effect of space travel on their DNA can easily be determined. They have travelled on several space missions, mostly in orbit around the earth. In 2003, they managed to be the sole survivors of the Columbia flight that crashed in Texas, when they succeeded in making it back to earth alive.

In future they will be sent on unmanned missions to the moon or Mars to determine the effect on their DNA and to establish whether humans would be able to survive such a flight.

But way before they are considered as explorers, let us examine the role nematodes play here on our own planet.

Nematodes are the subject of many fields of study. They are mostly cylindrical and wormlike. They can vary in size from a few millimetres to 8 metres – that’s the length of 1 000 earthworms laid end-to-end. They can be divided into three groups depending on their habitat – parasites on vertebrates, free living nematodes or plant-parasitic nematodes.

Most people have never heard of nematodes. But they can recall disturbing pictures from the internet of parasites in humans or animals that are mostly from the tropics. They may not even know it, but these are nematodes.

Nematodes can be