Department of Medical Laboratory Science and Biotechnology, Yuanpei University of Medical Technology, Hsinchu, Taiwan; Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Hsinchu Branch, Hsinchu, Taiwan.
Department of Medical Biotechnology and Laboratory Sciences, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
J Neurosci Methods. 2019 Dec 1;328:108415. doi: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2019.108415. Epub 2019 Aug 27.
The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is an emerging invertebrate animal model for investigating neuronal functions in behavioral assays. C. elegans mechanosensation was characterized by the use of a constant mechanical stimulation transmitter followed by quantitative imaging.
C. elegans reflex and habituation behaviors were characterized by mechanical vibration followed by image analysis. A custom-designed system consists of an aluminum alloy Petri dish holder frame coupled with a mechanical vibration buzzer delivering adjustable pulsed vibration to an agar plate. The basal and evoked movements of C. elegans were recorded by a microscopic digital camera followed by quantitative analysis using microscopic imaging software.
Application of the platform in C. elegans was demonstrated with three proof-of-concept experiments: (1) Evaluation of the reflex response stimulated by tapping and mechanical vibration with a mechano-sensation defective mutant. (2) Comparison of the reflex response stimulated by mechanical vibration between wild type and aging mutants. (3) Assessment of the efficacy of the mechanical vibration system on long-term memory for habituation.
Conventional C. elegans mechanosensation techniques depend on stimulation either by manually touching a single animal or tapping the Petri dish followed by scoring via visual observation from the examiner. The mechanical vibration method has greater capacity compared to conventional methods which are labor-intensive, have low throughput and lack quantifiable parameters.
The mechanical vibration system followed by image analysis is a convenient and integrated platform for investigatingC. elegans reflex and habituation in aging and neural behavioral assays.
秀丽隐杆线虫是一种新兴的无脊椎动物模型，可用于在行为测定中研究神经元功能。秀丽隐杆线虫的机械感觉特性是使用恒定的机械刺激发射器，然后进行定量成像。
通过机械振动 followed by image analysis 来描述秀丽隐杆线虫的反射和习惯化行为。一个定制的系统包括一个铝合金 Petri 盘支架框架，与一个机械振动蜂鸣器耦合，该蜂鸣器可向琼脂板提供可调脉冲振动。通过显微镜数字摄像头记录秀丽隐杆线虫的基本和诱发运动，然后使用显微镜成像软件进行定量分析。
该平台在秀丽隐杆线虫中的应用通过三个概念验证实验进行了演示：（1）用机械感觉缺陷突变体评估敲击和机械振动刺激引起的反射反应。（2）比较野生型和衰老突变体受机械振动刺激的反射反应。（3）评估机械振动系统对习惯化长时记忆的效果。
传统的秀丽隐杆线虫机械感觉技术依赖于手动触摸单个动物或敲击 Petri 盘 followed by 由考官进行视觉观察评分。与传统方法相比，机械振动方法的工作量更大，通量更低，缺乏可量化参数。
机械振动系统 followed by image analysis 是一种方便且集成的平台，可用于研究衰老和神经行为测定中的秀丽隐杆线虫反射和习惯化。
