Automated screening of C. elegans neurodegeneration mutants enabled by microfluidics and image analysis algorithms.

ABSTRACT: Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a degenerative disorder that selectively deteriorates motor neurons due to a deficiency of survival motor neuron protein (SMN). The illness is the leading genetic cause of death in infants and is difficult to study in complex biological systems such as humans. A simpler model system, such as the nematode C. elegans, can be used to study potential mechanisms underlying this disease; C. elegans expresses the smn-1 gene, a homologue of SMN; powerful genetic tools in C. elegans research can be used to discover novel genes whose effect on SMN remains unknown or uncharacterized. Currently, conventional screening methods are time-consuming and laborious, as well as being subjective and mostly qualitative. To address these issues, we engineer an automated system ca

SUBMITTER: de Carlos Caceres I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6193809 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature