Live-cell imaging of mitosis in Caenorhabditis elegans embryos

Caenorhabditis elegans is a wonderful model system for live imaging studies of mitosis. A huge collection of research tools is readily available to facilitate experimentation. For imaging, C. elegans embryos provide large clear cells, an invariant pattern of cell division, only six chromosomes, a very short cell cycle, and remain healthy and happy at room temperature. Mitosis is a complicated process and the types of research questions being asked about the mechanisms involved are continuously expanding. For each experiment, the details of imaging methods need to be tailored to the question. Specific imaging methods will depend on the microscopy hardware and software available to each researcher. This article presents points to consider when choosing a microscope, designing an imaging experiment, or selecting appropriate worm strains for imaging. A method for mounting C. elegans embryos and guidelines for fluorescence and differential interference contrast imaging of mitosis in live embryos are presented.