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High-Throughput Analysis of Behavior Under the Control of Optogenetics in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Alex J YuTroy A McDiarmidEvan L ArdielCatharine H Rankin
Published in: Current protocols in neuroscience (2018)
In this unit, we describe an inexpensive and versatile method for optogenetic stimulation of a large population of genetically engineered Caenorhabditis elegans worms while quantitatively analyzing behavior. A custom light-emitting diode light source is used to deliver blue-light stimuli, causing direct depolarization of neurons expressing the light-gated cation channel Channelrhodopsin-2, which in turn evokes behavioral responses. The behavioral responses are recorded by a high-throughput machine vision-based tracking system, the Multi-Worm Tracker, for detailed analysis. This approach allows researchers to bypass technical obstacles to simultaneously deliver uniform stimuli to a large number of freely behaving animals and investigate the neural underpinnings of behavior. © 2018 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Keyphrases
  • high throughput
  • light emitting
  • single cell
  • sensitive detection
  • ionic liquid
  • fluorescent probe