Long-Term High-Resolution Imaging of Developing C. elegans Larvae with Microfluidics.

ABSTRACT: Long-term studies of Caenorhabditis elegans larval development traditionally require tedious manual observations because larvae must move to develop, and existing immobilization techniques either perturb development or are unsuited for young larvae. Here, we present a simple microfluidic device to simultaneously follow development of ten C. elegans larvae at high spatiotemporal resolution from hatching to adulthood (∼3 days). Animals grown in microchambers are periodically immobilized by compression to allow high-quality imaging of even weak fluorescence signals. Using the device, we obtain cell-cycle statistics for C. elegans vulval development, a paradigm for organogenesis. We combine Nomarski and multichannel fluorescence microscopy to study processes such as cell-fate specification, ce

SUBMITTER: Keil W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5263027 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature