scholarly journals An automated microfluidic platform for C. elegans embryo arraying, phenotyping, and long-term live imaging

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Cornaglia ◽  
Laurent Mouchiroud ◽  
Alexis Marette ◽  
Shreya Narasimhan ◽  
Thomas Lehnert ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Live Imaging ◽  
Microfluidic Platform ◽  
C Elegans

scholarly journals A coral-on-a-chip microfluidic platform enabling live-imaging microscopy of reef-building corals

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Orr H. Shapiro ◽  
Esti Kramarsky-Winter ◽  
Assaf R. Gavish ◽  
Roman Stocker ◽  
Assaf Vardi
Keyword(s):  
Live Imaging ◽  
Live Coral ◽  
Powerful Method ◽  
Microfluidic Platform ◽  
Experimental Platform ◽  
Micro Scale ◽  
Algal Symbionts ◽  
Spatio Temporal

Abstract Coral reefs, and the unique ecosystems they support, are facing severe threats by human activities and climate change. Our understanding of these threats is hampered by the lack of robust approaches for studying the micro-scale interactions between corals and their environment. Here we present an experimental platform, coral-on-a-chip, combining micropropagation and microfluidics to allow direct microscopic study of live coral polyps. The small and transparent coral micropropagates are ideally suited for live-imaging microscopy, while the microfluidic platform facilitates long-term visualization under controlled environmental conditions. We demonstrate the usefulness of this approach by imaging coral micropropagates at previously unattainable spatio-temporal resolutions, providing new insights into several micro-scale processes including coral calcification, coral–pathogen interaction and the loss of algal symbionts (coral bleaching). Coral-on-a-chip thus provides a powerful method for studying coral physiology in vivo at the micro-scale, opening new vistas in coral biology.

scholarly journals Microfluidic platform with spatiotemporally controlled micro-environment for studying long-term C. elegans developmental arrests

Lab on a Chip ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (10) ◽  
pp. 1826-1833 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weipeng Zhuo ◽  
Hang Lu ◽  
Patrick T. McGrath
Keyword(s):  
Microfluidic Platform ◽  
C Elegans

scholarly journals Microfluidic Platform for Analyzing the Thermotaxis of C. elegans in a Linear Temperature Gradient

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (12) ◽  
pp. 1435-1440 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sunhee YOON ◽  
Hailing PIAO ◽  
Tae-Joon JEON ◽  
Sun Min KIM
Keyword(s):  
Temperature Gradient ◽  
Linear Temperature ◽  
Microfluidic Platform ◽  
C Elegans ◽  
Linear Temperature Gradient

scholarly journals Microfluidic-based imaging of complete C. elegans larval development

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Berger ◽  
Silvan Spiri ◽  
Andrew deMello ◽  
Alex Hajnal
Keyword(s):  
Imaging Method ◽  
Cover Glass ◽  
Vulval Development ◽  
C Elegans ◽  
Larval Stages ◽  
Seam Cell ◽  
Time Observation ◽  
On Chip ◽  
First Time

Several microfluidic-based methods for long-term C. elegans imaging have been introduced in recent years, allowing real-time observation of previously inaccessible processes. The ex-isting methods either permit imaging across multiple larval stages without maintaining a stable worm orientation, or allow for very good immobilization but are only suitable for shorter experiments. Here, we present a novel microfluidic imaging method, which allows parallel live-imaging across multiple larval stages, while delivering excellent immobilization and maintaining worm orientation and identity over time. This is achieved by employing an array of microfluidic trap channels carefully tuned to maintain worms in a stable orienta-tion, while allowing growth and molting to occur. Immobilization is supported by an active hydraulic valve, which presses worms onto the cover glass during image acquisition, with the animals remaining free for most of an experiment. Excellent quality images can be ac-quired of multiple worms in parallel, with little impact of the imaging method on worm via-bility or developmental timing. The capabilities of this methodology are demonstrated by observing the hypodermal seam cell divisions and, for the first time, the entire process of vulval development from induction to the end of morphogenesis. Moreover, we demonstrate RNAi on-chip, which allows for perturbation of dynamic developmental processes, such as basement membrane breaching during anchor cell invasion.

scholarly journals Soft-wired long-term memory in a natural recurrent neuronal network

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel A. Casal ◽  
Santiago Galella ◽  
Oscar Vilarroya ◽  
Jordi Garcia-Ojalvo
Keyword(s):  
Neuronal Network ◽  
Neuronal Networks ◽  
Initial Conditions ◽  
Permutation Entropy ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
C Elegans ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
Recurrent Connections

Neuronal networks provide living organisms with the ability to process information. They are also characterized by abundant recurrent connections, which give rise to strong feed-back that dictates their dynamics and endows them with fading (short-term) memory. The role of recurrence in long-term memory, on the other hand, is still unclear. Here we use the neuronal network of the roundworm C. elegans to show that recurrent architectures in living organisms can exhibit long-term memory without relying on specific hard-wired modules. A genetic algorithm reveals that the experimentally observed dynamics of the worm’s neuronal network exhibits maximal complexity (as measured by permutation entropy). In that complex regime, the response of the system to repeated presentations of a time-varying stimulus reveals a consistent behavior that can be interpreted as soft-wired long-term memory.A common manifestation of our ability to remember the past is the consistence of our responses to repeated presentations of stimuli across time. Complex chaotic dynamics is known to produce such reliable responses in spite of its characteristic sensitive dependence on initial conditions. In neuronal networks, complex behavior is known to result from a combination of (i) recurrent connections and (ii) a balance between excitation and inhibition. Here we show that those features concur in the neuronal network of a living organism, namely C. elegans. This enables long-term memory to arise in an on-line manner, without having to be hard-wired in the brain.

scholarly journals Transgenerational fitness effects of lifespan extension by dietary restriction in Caenorhabditis elegans

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward R. Ivimey-Cook ◽  
Kris Sales ◽  
Hanne Carlsson ◽  
Simone Immler ◽  
Tracey Chapman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Dietary Restriction ◽  
Mortality Risk ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Lifespan Extension ◽  
Dietary Interventions ◽  
C Elegans ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Broad Variety

AbstractDietary restriction increases lifespan in a broad variety of organisms and improves health in humans. However, long-term transgenerational consequences of dietary interventions are poorly understood. Here we investigated the effect of dietary restriction by temporary fasting (TF) on mortality risk, age-specific reproduction and fitness across three generations of descendants in C. elegans. We show that while TF robustly reduces mortality risk and improves late-life reproduction in the parental generation (P0), it has a wide range of both positive and deleterious effects on future generations (F1-F3). Remarkably, great-grandparental exposure to TF in early-life reduces fitness and increases mortality risk of F3 descendants to such an extent that TF no longer promotes a lifespan extension. These findings reveal that transgenerational trade-offs accompany the instant benefits of dietary restriction underscoring the need to consider fitness of future generations in pursuit of healthy ageing.

scholarly journals Tracking mitochondrial density and positioning along a growing neuronal process in individual C. elegans neuron using a long-term growth and imaging microfluidic device

eNeuro ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. ENEURO.0360-20.2021
Author(s):  
Sudip Mondal ◽  
Jyoti Dubey ◽  
Anjali Awasthi ◽  
Guruprasad Reddy Sure ◽  
Amruta Vasudevan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Microfluidic Device ◽  
Mitochondrial Density ◽  
Neuronal Process ◽  
C Elegans

scholarly journals Correction: Long-term C. elegans immobilization enables high resolution developmental studies in vivo

Lab on a Chip ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (12) ◽  
pp. 1802-1802
Author(s):  
Simon Berger ◽  
Evelyn Lattmann ◽  
Tinri Aegerter-Wilmsen ◽  
Michael Hengartner ◽  
Alex Hajnal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Developmental Studies ◽  
C Elegans

Correction for ‘Long-term C. elegans immobilization enables high resolution developmental studies in vivo’ by Simon Berger et al., Lab Chip, 2018, 18, 1359–1368.

scholarly journals Long-term experimental evolution reveals purifying selection on piRNA-mediated control of transposable element expression

BMC Biology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulfar Bergthorsson ◽  
Caroline J. Sheeba ◽  
Anke Konrad ◽  
Tony Belicard ◽  
Toni Beltran ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Transcriptional Activation ◽  
Small Rnas ◽  
Active Regions ◽  
Purifying Selection ◽  
Ancestral Population ◽  
Sequence Context ◽  
C Elegans ◽  
Population Sizes

Abstract Background Transposable elements (TEs) are an almost universal constituent of eukaryotic genomes. In animals, Piwi-interacting small RNAs (piRNAs) and repressive chromatin often play crucial roles in preventing TE transcription and thus restricting TE activity. Nevertheless, TE content varies widely across eukaryotes and the dynamics of TE activity and TE silencing across evolutionary time is poorly understood. Results Here, we used experimentally evolved populations of C. elegans to study the dynamics of TE expression over 409 generations. The experimental populations were evolved at population sizes of 1, 10 and 100 individuals to manipulate the efficiency of natural selection versus genetic drift. We demonstrate increased TE expression relative to the ancestral population, with the largest increases occurring in the smallest populations. We show that the transcriptional activation of TEs within active regions of the genome is associated with failure of piRNA-mediated silencing, whilst desilenced TEs in repressed chromatin domains retain small RNAs. Additionally, we find that the sequence context of the surrounding region influences the propensity of TEs to lose silencing through failure of small RNA-mediated silencing. Conclusions Our results show that natural selection in C. elegans is responsible for maintaining low levels of TE expression, and provide new insights into the epigenomic features responsible.

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