Optical Experiments Resutls

Fig.1 The 3-D construction of the ord-10::CoChR::GEM-GECO::mCherry worms' mCherry in AWA neuron. the most bright

Microfluidic Experiments

Here, we fixed the Caenorhabditis elegans in the Immobilization Chip to observe the Odr10::CoChR::GEM-GECO::mCherry worms under the fluorescence microscope and saw the neuronal activity successfully, which can confirm that the worms can express our target genes. We also put the Odr10::CoChR::GEM-GECO::mCherry worms into the chip, after a few minutes the worms would be inactive, then we can "wake up" the worms by the blue light.

Fig.1 A. The Immobilization Chip. B. The worms in the Immobilization Chip.

Then, we demonstrated that the insertion did not damage the olfactory receptor neuron pairs of the worms by testing their response to diacetyl and 2-nonanone in the Gaussian Plate.

Fig.2 A. The Gaussian Plate. B. The worms in the Gaussian Plate.

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Behavioral Experiments

Here, we confirmed that the Odr10::CoChR::GEM-GECO::mCherry worms could sense the blue light by inducing the Odr10::CoChR::GEM-GECO::mCherry worms to crawl a cycle on NGM plate. The Odr10::CoChR::GEM-GECO::mCherry worms could follow the blue light spot just like the attract of the food.

Fig.3 A. The device for light inducing exoeriment made by mercury lamp and optical fiber. B. The worm under the microscope when doing inducing experiment.

Then, in order to study the worms' learning ability we put the worms in alcohol layer on the NGM plate and stimulated them by the blue light at the same time. After 2 hours' training we found that the worms could crawl towards to the alcohol.

Fig.4 A.The device made by mercury lamp and microscope for training the worms.(More details in Hardware B. Using the alcohol to induce the worms.

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Plasmid Construction Results

According to the design of plasmid construction, we constructed ord-10::CoCHR::GEM-geco::mCherry and str-1::Chrimson::GEM-GECO::GFP fusion genes in backbone pCFJ909 successfully. The fusion gene segments were all be sequenced.

We also amplify B series plasmid in miniMos system for microinjection. We integrated ord-10::CoChR::GEM-GECO::mCherry and str-1::Chrimson::GEM-GECO::GFP fusion genes into C. elegans(Caenorhabditis elegans) by microinjection respectively.

Fig.5 ord-10::CoCHR::GEM-geco::mCherry

Fig.6 str-1::Chrimson::GEM-GECO::GFP

Microinjection Results

In order to get C. elegans strains with the preference to blue lights and the aversion to red lights, we used miniMos injection to inject our plasmids in to worms for expression.

On July.7, we microinjected 20 worms with ord-10::CoCHR::GEM-GECO::mCherry and 20 worms with Str-1::Chrimson::GEM-GECO::GFP. After 3 days, for each kinds of worms, we obtained more than 6 free-moving F1 with fluorescences. Then, 10 days after microinjection, we did heat shock to screen stable inheritance worms. For worms with ord-10::CoCHR::GEM-GECO::mCherry, one plate successfully survived more than 30 worms without GFP(a selective marker), but none of worms with Str-1::Chrimson::GEM-GECO::GFP survived. In addition, we did mapping experiments and demonstrated that ord-10::CoCHR::GEM-GECO::mCherry had successfully inserted in chromosome 1.

Fig.7 heat shock

Fig.8 heatshock under fluorenscence microscope

Fig.9 CoChR under confocal microscope

On August 1st, we microinject worms using Str-1::Chrimson::GEM-GECO::GFP. This time we injected 20 worms and also observed F1 phenotype after 3 days, picking up free-moving worms with RFP and did heat shock 9 days later. After heat shock, on August 21th, we got about 10 worms expressed plasmids without arrays, meaning that we obtained stable inheritance worms expressing Str-1::Chrimson::GEM-GECO::GFP.

Fig.10 Chrimoson under confocal microscope