Useful methods for producing high quality cultures and movies for C. elegans teaching labs at large (and small) institutions.
This is a direct link to BABEC’s C. elegans Labs page. There are modules of hands-on activities, each with a student and teacher guide version. Current modules include “Meet the worms!”, “Synchronization”, “chemotaxis assay”, and “The Effect of Alcohol on Worms “.
For this experiment, you will be given worms with a dominant mutation in the
rol-6 gene. You will also be given some wild
type worms so that you can observe the normal movement pattern.
You will then use RNAi (also known as RNA interference) to knockdown
expression of the mutant rol-6 allele
. What do you expect will happen to the worms
after the RNAi treatment?
Mueller, M. (2007). Malthus Under a Microscope: Using the soil nematode Caenorhabditis elegans to test Darwin’s premises about populations. The American Biology Teacher, 69(4), 219-225.
Students cultivated C. elegans, measured C. elegans population over time to gain deeper understanding of Darwin’s premises about populations, such as natural selection.
Note: you must purchase access to view the article online.
This is a project-based laboratory activity. Students will be engaged in activities of “forward genetics” and “functional genomics” (utilizing RNAi). For detailed lab procedure, please contact Dr. jhubbard [at] saturn [dot] med [dot] nyu [dot] edu (E. Jane Hubbard) at New York University.
DsRNAi by feeding lab for sophomore level genetics course using unc-22 gene. Handout provided to students (also includes instructions for online prelab). Includes prep sheet for dsRNAi by feeding lab.
Identification of dumpy worms; design of primers to amplify dpy-5 gene. Preparation of single worms for PCR, PCR reactions, gel electrophoresis.
A 6-day hands-on inquiry unit. Activities include C. elegans phenotype
observation, worm transfer, RNA
interference, PCR and DNA
electrophoresis. In addition, students have the opportunity to apply online tool BLAST to find out the gene
sequence of the dsRNA underlying the interference of RNA (RNAi).