Analysis of mechanical lysis paradigms for Caenorhabditis elegans protein extraction

Extraction of proteins, mRNA, lipids, or any other biological material from Caenorhabditis elegans requires lysis of the cuticle. While many techniques have been utilized to this end, there are limited comparisons of mechanical lysis techniques individually or in combination. Therefore, we tested common mechanical lysis techniques to extract proteins from C. elegans samples. Due to cuticle structural differences, we compared these techniques with samples from both the L4 larval stage and day 1 adults. We found that mechanical lysis improves protein yield relative to no mechanical lysis and that most mechanical lysis techniques are comparable.