Team:SUSTech Shenzhen/Results/Behavior

Results

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Behavioral Experiment Results

Fig.1 Control the C. elegans by the light. We used the optical fiber to form a light spot and the worm can follow the spot.

For the Odr10::CoChR::GEM-GECO::mCherry worms and str1::Chrimson::GEM-GECO::GFP worms we induced them to do some specific behaviors by the blue and red lights on the NGM plate. We could induce the Odr10::CoChR::GEM-GECO::mCherry worm to crawl a circle on the NGM plate by the blue light (Fig.1).

Then, the Odr10::CoChR::GEM-GECO::mCherry worms were trained by the alcohol. We added the alcohol with different concentration on the NGM plate to form a liquid film and we stimulated the C. elegans in the plate at the same time. After 2 hours we washed the plate to recover the worms in M9 buffer and put the mixture on one side of a new plate. Finally, we put the alcohol on the other side to see if the worms have the tropism of the alcohol.

Then we observed that some of the Odr10::CoChR::GEM-GECO::mCherry worms could swim to the alcohol but the wild types could not sense the alcohol (Fig.2). We could get that the Odr10::CoChR::GEM-GECO::mCherry worms (experimental worms) after training had the tropism of the alcohol (Fig.2 B).

Fig.2 A. The Odr10::CoChR::GEM-GECO::mCherry worms after 2 hours' training. We put the worms after training in the red cycle. B. The worms in A after alcohol inducing. We put the alcohol in the yellow cycle and the worms could crawl towards the alcohol. C. The wild type worms control. The wild types could not crawl towards the alcohol after training.

We did 3 groups of the control experiments, we could prove that the Odr10::CoChR::GEM-GECO::mCherry worms without training (Fig.3 C), the wild type worms after training (Fig.2 C) could not sense the alcohol and the Odr10::CoChR::GEM-GECO::mCherry worms after training could not sense the water (Fig.3 B).

Fig.2 A. The Odr10::CoChR::GEM-GECO::mCherry worms after training (The same as (Fig.2 B)). B. The Odr10::CoChR::GEM-GECO::mCherry worms after training.,then use buffer to induce them. We put the buffer in the yellow cycle and the worms could not crawl towards the alcohol. C. The Odr10::CoChR::GEM-GECO::mCherry worms without training, then use the alcohol to induce them. The Odr10::CoChR::GEM-GECO::mCherry worms could not crawl towards the alcohol without training.

Furthermore, we did the starvation treatment to our worms before the experiments, because of the hunger the worms would huddle together, however our Odr10::CoChR::GEM-GECO::mCherry worms crawl to the alcohol (Fig.2 B)) which means that they sensed something they prefer at that time. After several hours they would still huddle together because the disappearance of alcohol order. In our experiments, we could know that our training really made the Odr10::CoChR::GEM-GECO::mCherry worms fill in love with the alcohol.

Type of C. elegans	Total Number of the Worms	The number of the Induced Worms	Ratio (Induced worms/Total worms)
Odr10::CoChR::GEM-GECO::mCherry worms-training-alcohol induce	1280	154	12.03%
Odr10::CoChR::GEM-GECO::mCherry worms -training-buffer induce	320	6	1.88%
Odr10::CoChR::GEM-GECO::mCherry worms -notraining-alcohol induce	256	2	0.78%
wild types-training-alcohol induce	220	1	0.45%

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