C. elegans

[neelbhatt4]

Hi Sarah,
I have found out that you have done some research on C. elegans before. I am working on them too this semester and I am trying really hard to find experiments to perform on my animals. I really hope if you can help me out!
Thanks,
Sincerely,
Neel

[deleted-143835]

Hi Neel,

Thanks for posting! What ideas do you already have about testing with C. elegans? Is there any particular area you'd like to focus on? In fact, C. elegans is known as a "model organism," meaning it is an excellent organism to test with for several areas of biology. Please let me know what direction you're interested in, and I'd be happy to help you form an experiment!

Thanks!

[deleted-71625]

Hello Neel,
I'm sorry I didn't get back to you sooner! How is your project going? Have you come up with any ideas?
I guess my first question would be, what are you interested in? I would start out with a question first, rather than with the animal...but you can do that too. Have you tried using the Science Buddies project page? You can type in your interests and the Wizard comes up with some ideas for your project. Start here: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ndaproject, OR https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... deas.shtml

Also, here are a couple ideas I found:
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ml#summary
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ml#summary
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ml#summary

I used the worms in genetic mutation experiments, as far as I know that is their primary use for studies. They are a good species for this purpose because their life cycle is very short, they are visible, and they only have 6 chromosomes. Phenotype mutations (ones that are visible) are easily seen because you can observe C. elegans under a microscope. I don't know how many resources you have available; you need the worms, growth media, bacteria, and other items, and you DEFINITELY need adult supervision, since you are working with E. coli (what the worms eat). So those things might be considerations as well.

I would start with doing some research on C. elegans to see how other scientists used the specimen for their experiments. This can give you a starting point, and hopefully spark a science project

Let us know how your project is coming along and what you decide to do. Please post again in this same thread, so we can help you further. Have fun!