Fig. 1: The identification of 58 small molecules that modulate the C. elegans nervous system.

a, b Two perspectives of the ‘2020 Imager’ showing one 96-well plate in the imager holder (arrow). c Representative half-well images of vehicle controls in the basal (M9-only) background (left) and the ‘stimulatory cocktail’ of 12.3 mM serotonin creatine sulfate and 7.7 mM nicotine (right) after 1 h. A blue arrow points to an adult hermaphrodite and a red arrow points to a pair of embryos. d The distribution of counts of eggs/worm/hour for the basal background (blue) and the stimulatory background (red) from the indicated well-coordinates over 22 experimental replicates (96-well plates). The mean and SEM is shown, n = 66 biologically independent samples with ~20 animals per data point. e A screen of the worm active (wactive) library yields 29 inhibitors (purple) and 29 stimulators (green) of the C. elegans egg-laying rate. Mean Egl rate and SEM is shown from n = 3 independent biological replicates, conducted in technical triplicate with ~20 animals per technical replicate. f Venn diagram showing the overlap of the wactive molecules that are lethal (at 60 µM) with those that modulate egg-laying among the 486 molecules assayed in both assays. g A structure similarity network of the 58 egg-laying modulators. Each node represents a numbered wactive molecule. Connecting lines indicate shared structural similarity. Additional information is provided in Fig. 2. Primary data for this figure can be found in Supplementary Data 1.