Assessing E. coli-Induced Pharyngeal Pumping in C. elegans using the ScreenChip System

Pharyngeal pumping behavior in C. elegans is employed to ingest bacteria, the worms’ normal food. This application note compares a common method of eliciting pharyngeal pumping – exposing worms to serotonin (5HT) – to an alternative method, seeding plates with the E. coli strain OP50. Pharyngeal pumping frequency was measured from electropharyngeogram (EPG) recordings using the NemaMetrix ScreenChip system. The results demonstrate that using OP50 is a viable alternative to 5HT for stimulating pharyngeal pumping in the ScreenChip.