Worms without eyes shouldn’t see colour — yet C. elegans can. In this episode, we dive into a landmark study that shows how worms use blue-to-amber light ratios to make foraging decisions. When exposed to toxic blue pigments like pyocyanin, worms avoid them — but only under white light. The twist? They do it all without opsins.We explore:How worms detect and avoid blue-pigment-secreting P. aeruginosaWhy light potentiates avoidance, but only for certain spectral ratiosHow lite-1 and GUR-3 receptors mediate spectral sensitivityNatural variation in colour preference across wild strainsThe discovery that stress-related genes jkk-1 and lec-3 underlie colour-guided behaviourThis episode uncovers a new form of opsin-free colour vision, expanding our understanding of how simple organisms read complex environments.📖 Based on the research article:“C. elegans discriminates colors to guide foraging”Dipon Ghosh, Dongyeop Lee, Xin Jin, H. Robert Horvitz & Michael N. NitabachPublished in Science (2021)🔗 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abd3010🎧 Subscribe to the WOrM Podcast for more full-organism surprises in perception, evolution, and behaviour.🔗 www.veerenchauhan.com

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