Chemosensory behavior of semi-restrainedCaenorhabditis elegans

✍ Scribed by Faumont, Serge ;Miller, Adam C. ;Lockery, Shawn R.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 393 KB
• Volume: 65
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-3034
• DOI: 10.1002/neu.20196

✦ Synopsis

A new behavioral assay is described for studying chemosensation in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. This assay presents three main characteristics: (1) the worm is restrained by gluing, preserving correlates of identifiable behaviors; (2) the amplitude and time course of the stimulus are controlled by the experimenter; and (3) the behavior is recorded quantitatively. We show that restrained C. elegans display behaviors comparable to those of freely moving worms. Moreover, the chemosensory response of wild-type glued animals to changes in salt concentration is similar to that of freely moving animals. This glued-worm assay was used to reveal new chemosensory deficits of the potassium channel mutant egl-2. We conclude that the glued worm assay can be used to study the chemosensory regulation of C. elegans behavior and how it is affected by neuronal or genetic manipulations.