title: High-content behavioral analysis of Caenorhabditis elegans in precise spatiotemporal chemical environments.
abstract: To quantitatively understand chemosensory behaviors, it is desirable to present many animals with repeatable, well-defined chemical stimuli. To that end, we describe a microfluidic system to analyze Caenorhabditis elegans behavior in defined temporal and spatial stimulus patterns. A 2 cm × 2 cm structured arena allowed C. elegans to perform crawling locomotion in a controlled liquid environment. We characterized behavioral responses to attractive odors with three stimulus patterns: temporal pulses, spatial stripes and a linear concentration gradient, all delivered in the fluid phase to eliminate variability associated with air-fluid transitions. Different stimulus configurations preferentially revealed turning dynamics in a biased random walk, directed orientation into an odor stripe and speed regulation by odor. We identified both expected and unexpected responses in wild-type worms and sensory mutants by quantifying dozens of behavioral parameters. The devices are inexpensive, easy to fabricate, reusable and suitable for delivering any liquid-borne stimulus.
authors.affiliation: Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Laboratory of Neural Circuits and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, New York, New York, USA. dirk.albrecht@gmail.com
authors.forename: Dirk R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Albrecht
authors.forename: Cornelia I
authors.initials: CI
authors.lastname: Bargmann
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology*; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D004129:Dimethylpolysiloxanes / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D004129:Dimethylpolysiloxanes; D011108:Polymers