Antibiotic treatment or Bacteria-free worms?

Model Organism: Worms Methods & Reagents
1

Hi,

How can I get bacteria-free worms?

I tried to treat the worms with antibiotics (ampicilin) to eleminate E.coli (OP50) but an easy test showed that E.coli survived the antibiotic treatment.
Treatment and the test: The L4 worms were transferred to a new NGM plates containing 100mg/ml ampicilin, after ON incubation at RT the worms were transferred to a new NGM plate (NO antibiotic added). Testing the second plate showed that the bacteria survived the treatment, probabely in the intestine of the worms.

Regards
Reza

2

You can bleach gravid worms to recover eggs in the absence of bacteria (see this section of WormBook or look for protocols for cleaning strains or for synchronizing worms). The eggs can then be allowed to hatch, and you will have L1 larvae and little or no bacteria. Assuming you aren’t satisfied with developmentally arrested L1 larvae, after bleaching you can let the eggs hatch in synthetic media.