Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I have ordered flourescent C. Elegans worms to test in my science experiment. Are there any adjustments that need to be made to my microscope so they can be viewed as flourescent?

I /think/ you would just need to turn the light on the microscope down a little. However, I know there are people on the forum who are much more familiar with C. elegans, and I suggest waiting until they can chime in before taking that as fact.

Depending on the color of the fluorescent protein inthe worm you might need a color filter on the lens. The packaging literature that came with the worms or the supply company should give you that info.
Best of luck,
Caroline

Before you conduct your experiment, I would look over the following website:

http://www.microscopyu.com/articles/flu ... intro.html

...I'm not sure about the color filter, however...
Respond if you need more help...
Paulo

You usually do need a special microscope to see fluorescence. The specifics depend on what type of fluorescent molecule you are using. Some fluorescent tags are green, others red, others blue, etc. To see the fluorescence, the sample has to be excited at a certain wavelength of light. Here's an interesting tutorial of fluorescent microscopy that you might want to check out.
http://probes.invitrogen.com/resources/education/

Back to your experiment...Do the worms you have ordered contain GFP (Green fluorescent protein)? Do you know what aspect of the worm is suppose to "glow"? I might be able to help you out more if you can give me some more specifics on the C. elegans you are getting. Also, what are you planning to test in your experiment? (This might affect the nature of the microscope you need.)

If the fluorescence is due to GFP, then you may need to use an ultraviolet light source when viewing the C. elegans under the microscope.

I hope this helps.

Sincerely,
Janelle

The C. Elegans do have a GFP protein inside them. I tried to turn down the light on the microscope, as someone had suggested, but that did not work.

Did you order your worms from a company? I agree with Caroline that they should be able to give you info on how to visualize these worms.

The only C. elegans that I have seen that contain GFP transgenes do require a special fluorescence microscope. Perhaps for educational purposes, a strain has been made that can be seen with white light, but I'm not familiar with this.