Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 7, 2026
Monitoring Protein Aggregation Kinetics In Vivo using Automated Inclusion Counting in Caenorhabditis elegans
Published on: December 17, 2021
C. elegans under starvation produce proteinaceous material that supports collective aggregation into web-like
May Li1, Rex Kerr1, Saul Kato1
1Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States.
None:
We observed the aggregation of starved C. elegans into web-like patterns scaffolded by an unknown chemoattractive extracellular substance that is protein-rich, mucoid, water-insoluble, elastic, and likely to be both secreted and consumed by C. elegans . Under time-lapse imaging, we observed the formation of both the aggregation structures and the proteinaceous substance after populating an NGM plate with 100-200 worms and letting them starve over seven days. We preliminarily characterized the substance using Coomassie, WGA, and DAPI staining. We surmise that the substance may be composed of cuticles, remnants of dead worms, and worm yolk.
Related Concept Videos
01:18Assembly of Cytoskeletal Filaments
01:39Mechanism of Filopodia Formation
Their main function is to guide migrating cells during normal tissue morphogenesis or cancer metastasis by recognizing and making initial contacts with the extracellular matrix. However, they can also act as stationary cell anchors or help to establish communication...