An automated microfluidic platform for C. elegans embryo arraying, phenotyping, and long-term live imaging

Abstract

Studies of the real-time dynamics of embryonic development require a gentle embryo handling method, the possibility of long-term live imaging during the complete embryogenesis, as well as of parallelization providing a population’s statistics, while keeping single embryo resolution. We describe an automated approach that fully accomplishes these requirements for embryos of Caenorhabditis elegans, one of the most employed model organisms in biomedical research. We developed a microfluidic platform which makes use of pure passive hydrodynamics to run on-chip worm cultures, from which we obtain synchronized embryo populations, and to immobilize these embryos in incubator microarrays for long-term high-resolution optical imaging. We successfully employ our platform to investigate morphogenesis and mitochondrial biogenesis during the full embryonic development and elucidate the role of the mitochondrial unfolded protein response (UPRmt) within C. elegans embryogenesis. Our method can be generally used for protein expression and developmental studies at the embryonic level, but can also provide clues to understand the aging process and age-related diseases in particular.

Logarithmic bacterial gradient chip for analyzing the effects of dietary restriction on C. elegans growth

“…In recent years, microfluidic device has been recognized as a new platform for fundamental studies in C. elegans because of microchannel's comparable dimension to the tiny worms and the versatile use of micro-flow. "Worm-chip" have successfully used in phenotyping and stage screening, nerve system imaging, behavioral dynamics, microsurgery and microinjection [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]. Currently, several dilution micro-devices have been proposed for generating logarithmic, liner, and parabolic chemical concentration gradients [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36].…”

Acoustofluidic Rotational Manipulation of Cells and Organisms Using Oscillating Solid Structures

“…Our acoustofluidic rotational manipulation device is simple‐to‐fabricate and easy‐to‐operate. It can be conveniently integrated into the existing microfluidic devices designed for handling cells and small model organisms.…”

Microfluidics for mechanobiology of model organisms

“…While no other microfluidic devices have been published for studying mechanobiology of worm embryos and larvae, other devices for sorting (Cornaglia et al, 2015; Sofela et al, 2018; Yang et al, 2017) and observing (Cornaglia et al, 2015; Hulme et al, 2010; Keil, Kutscher, Shaham, & Siggia, 2017) embryos and larvae have been presented. These devices have the potential to be used for studying mechanobiology if additional features are added to apply mechanical stimuli and observe the resulting information processing (Fig.…”