DNA Transformation of C. elegans

Hi I’m new to this forum but was wondering if anyone had advice on DNA transformation of C. elegans.

I am looking to model Huntington’s Disease in wild-strain nematodes through an extended CAG triplet chain. Would this be possible through injection of a plasmid into the gonads of the nematodes? My proposed protocol as of now would be to use PCR to elongate the desired section of DNA, clone it into a vector and subclone that into a vector for insertion into the c. elegans. Is a microinjector the only method of doing so?

I am a senior at a science and tech magnet in Virginia. I appreciate any advice or suggestions, I can use all the help I can get.

Hi,
Peter Faber and Anne Hart have published a couple of papers on using C. elegans to model polyglutamine disorders, and in fact as I do a search I find there are a couple dozen additional related papers, including several reviews.
Microinjection is by far the most popular method of generating transgenes in C. elegans. It does create transgenes with very large copy number within the transgene; this can be addressed to some degree by diluting the injected DNA with carrier DNA to create a complex array. It may also be desirable to integrate any extrachromosomal transgene into the genome, which may increase stability and reproducibility.
The other method people sometimes use is microparticle bombardment, also called a gene gun. This method is much less efficient and requires access to additional equipment, but can produce spontaneous genomic integration of transgenes with very low copy number.
There are a couple of methods that can in theory be used to perform targeted gene replacement, which could give a single-copy transgene of known structure; at present these methods are highly inefficient and have not been used extensively.
If you haven’t already done so, I strongly recommend you read Wormbook’s chapter on the subject of DNA transformation.