Hello, I am new to worm research and the only person in my lab working on worms. I have a query what are the methods to feed a worm with certain chemicals to study thier effect on lifespan in C elegans. I wish to perform the study on solid NGM plates. Anyone can help? 
Hi,
I don’t know how long you have been working with C. elegans, but if you’re alone in your lab then the best starting point would be to read through the wormbook chapters to get a thorough grounding in methods and practical tips.
(found here) http://wormbook.org/
After that, there are numerous references to lifespan assays and C. elegans published on the internet that you could google for. In particular, there are links to Journal of Visual Experiments (JOVE) papers which have an associated video taking you through the experimental work, some of which are open access including this one by Greg Solis in the Petrascheck lab;
http://www.jove.com/video/2496/measuring-caenorhabditis-elegans-life-span-96-well-microtiter?ID=2496
After that, information regarding the ‘chemical’ you are planning to use may bring more answers to your question.
Steve
For lifespan experiments, I’ve done experiments where we topically spread a compound on top of the NGM plates using a hockey stick, wait O/N, and then seed with OP50. I’ve also done experiments where we just directly add it to cooled NGM before pouring.
Indeed, any extra information regarding your ‘chemical’ will help us answer your questions.
Hello Shruti,
Can you please tell us which ¨certain¨chemical u like to use?
There are number of ways… For eg, with Paraquat I generally mix the chemical with the NGM agar and then pour the plates.
For BSO, I add them over the OP-50 seeded plates, let them dry overnite and then start the Assay…
Hope this helps,
Sanjib
Hey thanks for the suggestions, all of you. That will really help me. Actually I am trying to feed worms with rotenone. I have performed it once by adding it to NGM media and next by making dilution in live OP50 culture? Adding to media worked fie but I was hoping if mixed in OP50 culture I could see more pronounced effect… but instead there was no effect at all? Does this happens with certain chemicals if not all?