Time-off-pick Assay to Measure Caenorhabditis elegans Motility

Abstract

Caenorhabditis elegans is a simple metazoan that is often used as a model organism to study various human ailments with impaired motility phenotypes, including protein conformational diseases. Numerous motility assays that measure neuro-muscular function have been employed using C. elegans . Here, we describe "time-off-pick" (TOP), a novel assay for assessing motility in C. elegans . TOP is conducted by sliding an eyebrow hair under the mid-section of the worm and counting the number of seconds it takes for the worm to crawl completely off. The time it takes for the worm to crawl off the eyebrow hair is proportional to the severity of its motility defect. Other readouts of motility include crawling or swimming phenotypes, and although widely established, have some limitations. For example, worms that are roller mutants are less suitable for crawling or swimming assays. We demonstrated that our novel TOP assay is sensitive to age-dependent changes in motility, thus, providing another more inclusive method to assess motor function in C. elegans . Graphical abstract: Conceptual overview of the "time-off-pick" (TOP) assay. Various C. elegans models exhibit age-dependent defects in motility. The time it takes for a worm to crawl off of an eyebrow pick that is slid under its mid-section is measured in TOP seconds. A greater TOP is indicative of a greater motility defect. Eventually, worms with phenotypes that lead to paralysis will not be able to leave the pick.

Keywords: Caenorhabditis elegans; Motility; Motility assessment; Motility defect; Muscle function.