Assembly and Operation of a Cooling Stage to Immobilize C. elegans on Their Culture Plates

High-resolution in vivo microscopy approaches can reveal subtle information and fine details inside the model animal Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans), but require strong animal immobilization to prevent motion blur in the images. Unfortunately, most current immobilization techniques require substantial manual effort, rendering high-resolution imaging low-throughput. Immobilization of C. elegans is greatly simplified by using a cooling approach that can easily immobilize entire populations directly on their cultivation plates. The cooling stage can establish and maintain a wide range of temperatures with a uniform distribution on the cultivation plate. In this article, the whole process of building the cooling stage is documented. The aim is that a typical researcher can build an operational cooling stage in their laboratory following this protocol without difficulty. Utilization of the cooling stage following three protocols is shown, and each protocol has advantages for different experiments. Also shown is an example cooling profile of the stage as it approaches its final temperature and some helpful tips in using cooling immobilization.