Journal
JOURNAL OF NEUROPHYSIOLOGY
Volume 99, Issue 6, Pages 3136-3143Publisher
AMER PHYSIOLOGICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1152/jn.91327.2007
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Funding
- NIMH NIH HHS [R01 MH051383-14, R01 MH051383, R21 MH112105] Funding Source: Medline
- NINDS NIH HHS [R21 NS061147, R21 NS061147-01, R01 NS047715, R01 NS047715-04] Funding Source: Medline
- PHS HHS [NIMH-051383] Funding Source: Medline
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With a nervous system of only 302 neurons, the free-living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is a powerful experimental organism for neurobiology. However, the laboratory substrate commonly used in C. elegans research, a planar agarose surface, fails to reflect the complexity of this organism's natural environment, complicates stimulus delivery, and is incompatible with high-resolution optophysiology experiments. Here we present a new class of microfluidic devices for C. elegans neurobiology and behavior: agarose-free, micron-scale chambers and channels that allow the animals to crawl as they would on agarose. One such device mimics a moist soil matrix and facilitates rapid delivery of fluid-borne stimuli. A second device consists of sinusoidal channels that can be used to regulate the waveform and trajectory of crawling worms. Both devices are thin and transparent, rendering them compatible with high-resolution microscope objectives for neuronal imaging and optical recording. Together, the new devices are likely to accelerate studies of the neuronal basis of behavior in C. elegans.
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