Question 1

What temperature conditions are best for growing C. elegans in the lab?

Accepted Answer

C. elegans can be grown at 16, 20, or 25 °C depending on experimental requirements. Temperature directly affects life cycle speed: at 25 °C, worms complete their life cycle 2.1 times faster than at 16 °C. Faster growth means worms mature quicker, lay more eggs, and consume more food, making temperature selection critical for experimental design.

Question 2

What do C. elegans eat and how are they fed in the laboratory?

Accepted Answer

C. elegans are fed OP50, a standardized strain of E. coli used in every worm lab worldwide. In the wild, worms feed on decomposing plant matter, but in the lab they consume OP50 cultured on nematode growth media (NGM) plates or in liquid media. This standardized diet ensures consistent experimental conditions across research facilities.

Question 3

How do you make and prepare NGM plates for C. elegans culture?

Accepted Answer

Combine nematode growth media ingredients with deionized water, autoclave for at least 15 minutes, then cool to 55 °C. Add aseptic additives if needed, pipette into Petri plates until 2/3 full, and dry overnight. Inoculate with OP50 E. coli resuspended to 10X concentration, dry overnight, then expose to UV light for sterilization before use.

Question 4

What is a worm pick and how is it constructed?

Accepted Answer

A worm pick is a tool made from 30 gauge platinum-iridium wire sealed into a Pasteur pipet tip. The wire is flattened at the end and bent upward to form a scoop, then sanded smooth. The pick allows researchers to individually manipulate and transfer worms under a dissection microscope without damaging them or the agar surface.

Question 5

How are C. elegans frozen and recovered for long-term storage?

Accepted Answer

Wash freshly starved larvae in M9 Buffer, transfer to a cryotube, add equal volume of 30% glycerol in M9 Buffer, and store at -80 °C. To recover, thaw at room temperature, pipette onto fresh NGM plates with OP50, and incubate at 20 °C. After 2-3 days, transfer animals to new plates and allow one generation of reproduction before scoring phenotypes.

Question 6

What happens to C. elegans when they experience stress or overcrowding?

Accepted Answer

When starved or overcrowded, C. elegans enter the dauer stage, a stress-resistant larval stage where worms do not age. This survival mechanism allows populations to persist under adverse conditions until resources become available again, making dauer larvae useful for long-term storage and experimental manipulation.

Question 7

How is RNA interference used to study gene function in C. elegans?

Accepted Answer

Researchers prepare plates with E. coli expressing target gene dsRNA, which worms consume. Fourth larval stage worms are transferred to RNAi plates to lay eggs, then progeny are collected at desired developmental stages and scored for phenotypes. This approach silences specific genes to determine their function, leveraging insights from development and reproduction of caenorhabditis elegans for disease research.

C. elegans Maintenance - Assessment Quiz