Hi there,
I typically grow worms on NGM thick. I realized sometimes the worms are incredibly lethargic, moving either very slowly or not at all. There were also many unhatched embryos on starved plates. Is it possible that the worms were experiencing mild hypoxia? What do I do to avoid that?
Best,
Ethan
The lethal effects of prolonged hypoxia/anoxia are very distinctive, including a rigid elongated posture, and unless you’re deliberately storing the worms under low oxygen conditions it will only spontaneously happen when plates become tightly vaporlocked, such that the lid is hard to pry off the plate - it’s hard to overlook.
We observed some lethargy and lethality when using a large number of peptone plates seeded with NA22 in a small enclosed incubator. There was a strong odor when the incubator door was opened, and worms were fine when grown on the same plates on the bench top or in a larger incubator. The assumption was some noxious gaseous metabolite was responsible, but we never tested critically.
How old are your plates? Sometimes, if the plates with food are left awhile, the plates can dry out and the worms become lethargic and unhappy. Moving to fresher plates helps considerably.