Studying developmental patterns of social interactions in C. elegans and their effects on individuality
Individuals within the same population dynamically change their social interactions across development. Understanding how these long-term inter-individual behavioral interactions are modified across different stages of development and the neuronal pathways involved remains unclear. We developed and utilized a novel imaging setup to study behavioral interactions of multiple pairs of C. elegans across developmental timescales. We found that wild-type animals show dynamic patterns of social interactions that increase in frequency and change in duration in a stage-specific manner. We further revealed that these long-term social patterns are shaped by specific sensory modalities, in particular, mechanosensation and chemosensation. Moreover, we found that the social context also affected consistent individuality within the pairs during early developmental stages. Our results highlight an active role for sensory pathways in organizing the developmental dynamics of social behavior and their effects on individual variation.
