title: 3-D worm tracker for freely moving C. elegans.
abstract: The manner in which the nervous system regulates animal behaviors in natural environments is a fundamental issue in biology. To address this question, C. elegans has been widely used as a model animal for the analysis of various animal behaviors. Previous behavioral assays have been limited to two-dimensional (2-D) environments, confining the worm motion to a planar substrate that does not reflect three-dimensional (3-D) natural environments such as rotting fruits or soil. Here, we develop a 3-D worm tracker (3DWT) for freely moving C. elegans in 3-D environments, based on a stereoscopic configuration. The 3DWT provides us with a quantitative trajectory, including the position and movement direction of the worm in 3-D. The 3DWT is also capable of recording and visualizing postures of the moving worm in 3-D, which are more complex than those in 2-D. Our 3DWT affords new opportunities for understanding the nervous system function that regulates animal behaviors in natural 3-D environments.
authors: X-ray Imaging Center, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, South Korea.
authors: Namseop
authors: N
authors: Kwon
authors: Jaeyeon
authors: J
authors: Pyo
authors: Seung-Jae
authors: SJ
authors: Lee
authors: Jung Ho
authors: JH
authors: Je
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D009424:Nervous System Physiological Phenomena; D014741:Video Recording