Automated phenotyping of Caenorhabditis elegans embryos with a high-throughput-screening microfluidic platform
Abstract The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has been extensively used as a model multicellular organism to study the influence of osmotic stress conditions and the toxicity of chemical compounds on developmental and motility-associated phenotypes. However, the several-day culture of nematodes neede...
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Published in | Microsystems & nanoengineering Vol. 6; no. 1; p. 24 |
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Main Authors | , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
London
Springer Nature B.V
06.04.2020
Nature Publishing Group UK |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Abstract
The nematode
Caenorhabditis elegans
has been extensively used as a model multicellular organism to study the influence of osmotic stress conditions and the toxicity of chemical compounds on developmental and motility-associated phenotypes. However, the several-day culture of nematodes needed for such studies has caused researchers to explore alternatives. In particular,
C. elegans
embryos, due to their shorter developmental time and immobile nature, could be exploited for this purpose, although usually their harvesting and handling is tedious. Here, we present a multiplexed, high-throughput and automated embryo phenotyping microfluidic approach to observe
C. elegans
embryogenesis after the application of different chemical compounds. After performing experiments with up to 800 embryos per chip and up to 12 h of time-lapsed imaging per embryo, the individual phenotypic developmental data were collected and analyzed through machine learning and image processing approaches. Our proof-of-concept platform indicates developmental lag and the induction of mitochondrial stress in embryos exposed to high doses (200 mM) of glucose and NaCl, while small doses of sucrose and glucose were shown to accelerate development. Overall, our new technique has potential for use in large-scale developmental biology studies and opens new avenues for very rapid high-throughput and high-content screening using
C. elegans
embryos. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 2055-7434 2096-1030 2055-7434 |
DOI: | 10.1038/s41378-020-0132-8 |