Figure 3
Worm culture in the NemaLife chip with capacity to remove progeny. (a) A typical chamber with wild-type animals and their progeny 24 h after loading. Scale bar 1 mm. To easily visualize progeny, the effect of progeny washing, the images contain about 40 animals, which is almost 3 × the standard count of 10–15 animals per arena. (b) Enlarged view of adult animals, progeny (black arrows) and eggs (red arrows) inside the micropillar arena. Scale bar 200 µm. (c) A chamber with adult-only population after removal of progeny/eggs by washing. The tiny white spots represent bacterial aggregates and not eggs. Scale bar 1 mm. (d) Animals at the exit are retained by the sieve channel, Scale bar 1 mm. (e) Effectiveness of progeny removal and adult retention in the NemaLife chip by washing the chambers with S-complete buffer. 16 (red), 32 (blue), and 44 (black) adults (day 3 after hatching) were allowed to reproduce in 3 identical units and synchronization was performed on day 4. Animals were incubated at 20 °C. Open symbols represent adults and closed symbols represent progeny. Adult retention and progeny removal from a single unit is identified with the same color and symbol. N = 3 repeat trials. The device used in efficacy trial for progeny removal has pillars of diameter 40 µm and spacing of 60 µm (Device I).
