An automated system for measuring parameters of nematode sinusoidal movement

Abstract

Background: Nematode sinusoidal movement has been used as a phenotype in many studies of C. elegans development, behavior and physiology. A thorough understanding of the ways in which genes control these aspects of biology depends, in part, on the accuracy of phenotypic analysis. While worms that move poorly are relatively easy to describe, description of hyperactive movement and movement modulation presents more of a challenge. An enhanced capability to analyze all the complexities of nematode movement will thus help our understanding of how genes control behavior.

Scalable electrophysiology in intact small animals with nanoscale suspended electrode arrays

“…e , Locomotive phenotyping of WT animals on Nematode Growth Media shows that worms that have been immobilized in a nano-SPEAR device remain intact and have no significant difference in crawling velocities from control animals (n = 10 for each cohort, error represents the standard error, ns = not significant via unpaired, two-sided Student’s t-test). The velocities for each group are within the bounds of with previously reported values 25 .…”

“…Control worms (n = 10) were continually kept on seeded NGM. Using previously established tracking software 8,9 , we measured animal locomotion for 2 min on a fresh, 10 cm NGM plate with a thin, even layer of OP50 spread across the surface. Tracking occurred within 4 hours of recordings.…”

Distributed Effects of Biological Sex Define Sex-Typical Motor Behavior inCaenorhabditis elegans

“…C. elegans locomotion was recorded using a semiautomated tracking system based on that described by Cronin et al (2005), modified to capture images directly to hard disk rather than videocassette. Briefly, the system comprised a FireWire camera (Unibrain Fire-i 501b), microscope (Leica MZ7.5), computer (Dell Optiplex 640), and motorized stage (Ludl Electronic Products BioPoint2).…”

“…Briefly, the system comprised a FireWire camera (Unibrain Fire-i 501b), microscope (Leica MZ7.5), computer (Dell Optiplex 640), and motorized stage (Ludl Electronic Products BioPoint2). The DigiTracker software developed by Cronin et al (2005) was used to track worms during behavioral assays. The system was placed in a refrigerated incubator (Percival Scientific) to maintain consistent temperature during assays.…”

“…Recordings of solitary worm behavior were initially processed using the DigiRecognizer analysis package described by Cronin et al (2005). Briefly, worms were recognized in collected images based on contrast, and reduced to a 13-point "spine" (an articulated line representing the posture of the worm).…”