Issue 15, 2017

Automated and controlled mechanical stimulation and functional imaging in vivo in C. elegans

Abstract

C. elegans is a useful genetic model system for investigating mechanisms involved in sensory behavior which are potentially relevant to human diseases. While utilities of advanced techniques such as microfluidics have accelerated some areas of C. elegans sensory biology such as chemosensation, studies of mechanosensation conventionally require immobilization by glue and manual delivery of stimuli, leading to low experimental throughput and high variability. Here we present a microfluidic platform that precisely and robustly delivers a wide range of mechanical stimuli and can also be used in conjunction with functional imaging and optical interrogation techniques. The platform is fully automated, thereby greatly enhancing the throughput and robustness of experiments. We show that the behavior of the well-known gentle and harsh touch neurons and their receptive fields can be recapitulated. Using calcium dynamics as a read-out, we demonstrate its ability to perform a drug screen in vivo. We envision that this system will be able to greatly accelerate the discovery of genes and molecules involved in mechanosensation and multimodal sensory behavior, as well as the discovery of therapeutics for related diseases.

Graphical abstract: Automated and controlled mechanical stimulation and functional imaging in vivo in C. elegans

Associated articles

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
28 Apr 2017
Accepted
13 Jun 2017
First published
13 Jun 2017
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Lab Chip, 2017,17, 2609-2618

Automated and controlled mechanical stimulation and functional imaging in vivo in C. elegans

Y. Cho, D. A. Porto, H. Hwang, L. J. Grundy, W. R. Schafer and H. Lu, Lab Chip, 2017, 17, 2609 DOI: 10.1039/C7LC00465F

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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