Summary
This protocol describes the culturing of the nematode
Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans)
in a sterol-defined experimental system and the subsequent quantitative analysis of
C. elegans
sterols through gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Although studied primarily in mammals, sterols are essential biomolecules for most eukaryotes.
C. elegans
cannot synthesize sterols and thus relies on the uptake of dietary sterols. Therefore,
C. elegans
is a powerful system to study metabolism in sterol-defined conditions that are described in our protocol.
For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to
Shamsuzzama et al. (2020)
.