HI, I am new to C. Elegans. Sorry for this very basic question:
What protocol do you use to maintain the number of male worms? I know that every few days I need to pick some of the males and transfer them to a new plate and then add a couple of hermaphrodites.
But, Can you tell me how often this should be done, how many males, and how many hermaphrodites? (I am using the 50mm diameter Petri dishes)
Thank you
If I am continually “needing” males for crosses or behavior, I make plates with tiny spots of food (< 1 cm) and put on 3-4 youngish hermaphrodites and 10+ males. The small size of the spot seems to increase the frequency of males encountering and mating with the hermaphrodites. If I am just trying to keep a stock of N2 males available to use sometime in the future, I put a similar numbers of worms on a regular spot plate and then just let the plate grow. Even after it is old and totally starved (2+ weeks), you can pick surviving males to make your new N2 with males plate. In either case, mating is more successful at 20C, although I keep my “stock” N2 with malse plate at 14C because I am lazy (or maybe just efficient at using my time?). Janet