Quantitative assessment of fat levels in Caenorhabditis elegans using dark field microscopy

Anthony D. Fouad, Shelley H. Pu, Shelly Teng, Julian R. Mark, Moyu Fu, Kevin Zhang, Jonathan Huang, David M. Raizen, Christopher Fang-Yen

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    12 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans is widely used as a model for studying conserved pathways for fat storage, aging, and metabolism. The most broadly used methods for imaging fat in C. elegans require fixing and staining the animal. Here, we show that dark field images acquired through an ordinary light microscope can be used to estimate fat levels in worms. We define a metric based on the amount of light scattered per area, and show that this light scattering metric is strongly correlated with worm fat levels as measured by Oil Red O (ORO) staining across a wide variety of genetic backgrounds and feeding conditions. Dark field imaging requires no exogenous agents or chemical fixation, making it compatible with live worm imaging. Using our method, we track fat storage with high temporal resolution in developing larvae, and show that fat storage in the intestine increases in at least one burst during development.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1811-1818
    Number of pages8
    JournalG3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics
    Volume7
    Issue number6
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2017 Jun 1

    Bibliographical note

    Publisher Copyright:
    © 2017 Fouad et al.

    Keywords

    • C. elegans
    • Dark field fat
    • Nile Red
    • Oil Red O

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Molecular Biology
    • Genetics
    • Genetics(clinical)

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