{"id":36072,"date":"2024-04-09T14:21:28","date_gmt":"2024-04-09T18:21:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/?p=36072"},"modified":"2024-04-24T14:08:13","modified_gmt":"2024-04-24T18:08:13","slug":"intro-to-c-elegans_wdt2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/intro-to-c-elegans_wdt2024\/","title":{"rendered":"WDT 2024 Intro to C elegans Model System"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction to C. elegans<\/em> Genetic Model System<\/h1>\n

Instructor: Niall Howlett, PhD, University of Rhode Island<\/h2>\n

Location: URI <\/strong> <\/em> 
\nSession 1: June 5 – June 7 ( Lab: Room 405 \/ Lecture Room: Avedisian Rm 303)
\nSession 2: June 12 – June 14 ( Lab: Room 405 \/ Lecture Room: Avedisian Rm 403)<\/p>\n

Course Overview<\/h3>\n

For well over 50 years, since the pioneering work of Sydney Brenner, the nematode (round worm) Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans<\/em>) has been used as a genetic model to study developmental biology and nervous system development and function. C. elegans<\/em> is also an outstanding model organism for the study of basic functions and interactions of eukaryotic cells, host-parasite interactions, evolution, aging, and disease.<\/p>\n

There are many features of C. elegans<\/em> that make it an outstanding model organism; 1) Its small size (0.25 – 1.0 mm in length), 2) Its rapid life cycle (3 days at 25\u00b0C from egg to egg-laying adult | adults live for ~2 weeks), 3) It is transparent, enabling brightfield and fluorescence visualization of development and function, 4) It\u2019s small and fully sequenced genome (100 Mbp) – the first multicellular organism to have its genome sequenced, and 5) It\u2019s powerful genetics, e.g., the ease of genetic manipulation and ability to perform forward and reverse genetic screens to identify genes associated with novel phenotypes.<\/p>\n

The module will be completed over 2.5 days and participants who complete the module will receive an RI-INBRE Certificate of completion.<\/p>\n

Learning Outcomes<\/h2>\n

Upon completion of this workshop, we expect that trainees will be able to perform the following:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Prepare C. elegans<\/em> growth media including the OP50 bacterial food source.<\/li>\n
  • Understand the lifecycle of C. elegans<\/em> from egg to aged adult and be able to recognize the various larval and adult life stages.<\/li>\n
  • Understand C. elegans<\/em> gene, protein, and strain nomenclature.<\/li>\n
  • Recognize key anatomical features of adult C. elegans<\/em>.<\/li>\n
  • Physically pick and isolate C. elegans<\/em> at select larval and adult life stages using the stereomicroscope.<\/li>\n
  • Perform C. elegans<\/em> fluorescence microscopy to examine specific neuronal cell populations.<\/li>\n
  • Perform select C. elegans<\/em> behavioral assays.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Lab Report<\/h2>\n

    Students will be expected to maintain detailed laboratory notes<\/p>\n

    Timeline<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
    <\/td>Day 1<\/th>Day 2<\/th>Day 3<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
    9:00 AM-10:00 AM<\/td>Intro to C. elegans<\/em> as a model organism (lecture)<\/td>Behavioral assays:
    \nMeasuring worm motor neuron activity using the thrashing assay (lecture)<\/td>    		<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    10:00 AM-11:00 AM<\/td>Identification of the different stages of the life cycle.
    \nNoting worm behavior, characteristics, and movement
    \n(hands-on)<\/td>    		Behavioral assay:
    \nThe thrashing assay with wild-type and mutant worms
    \n(hands-on)
    \n<\/td>    		Practice picking worms, review all
    \ncollected data (hands on and discussion)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    11:00 AM-12:00 PM<\/td>Introduction to worm media preparation and the culturing of the bacterial
    \nfood source using aseptic technique
    \n(lecture and hands on)
    \n<\/td>    		Analysis of thrashing results; graphing and statistical analysis.
    \nDiscussion and interpretation of the results<\/td>    		Open discussion and Q&A session<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    12:00 - 1:00 PM<\/td>Break<\/td>Break<\/td>WDT Survey and
    \nCertificate Distribution<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    1:00 PM-2:00 PM<\/td>Completion of C. elegans<\/em> media preparation.
    \nDiscussion of C. elegans<\/em> gene, protein, and strain nomenclature
    \n(Hands on & lecture)<\/td>    		The use of GFP transgenic reporter strains for nervous
    \nsystem function
    \n(lecture)<\/td>    		<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    2:00 PM-3:00 PM<\/td>Analysis of C. elegans<\/em> movement and behavior; wild-type and mutant
    \nworms, recording observations
    \n(hands-on)
    \n<\/td>    		Analysis of wild-type and mutant GFP-labelled acetylcholine (ACh) motor neuron reporter strains |
    \nPerforming neuronal counts
    \n(hands-on)<\/td>    		<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    3:00 PM-4:00 PM<\/td>Practice picking and moving worms on the stereomicroscope
    \n(hands-on)<\/td>    		Analysis of ACh results; graphing and statistical analysis |
    \nDiscussion and interpretation of the results<\/td>    		<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Introduction to C. elegans Genetic Model System Instructor: Niall Howlett, PhD, University of Rhode Island Location: URI    Session 1: June 5 – June 7 ( Lab: Room 405 \/ Lecture Room: Avedisian Rm 303) Session 2: June 12 – June 14 ( Lab: Room 405 \/ Lecture Room: Avedisian Rm 403) Course Overview For […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3192,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3192"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36072"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36313,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36072\/revisions\/36313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}