Volume 2 Issue 5, May 2007

Fluorescent micrograph of cultured Caenorhabditis elegans mechanosensory neurons expressing mec-4::GFP. Cell nuclei are labelled with DAPI and shown in blue. Image is from the protocol by Strange et al., which describes the large-scale primary culture of C. elegans developing embryo cells for use in electrophysiological, cell biological and molecular studies. This protocol also details methods for inducing RNA interference (RNAi) in embryo cell cultures, isolating specific cell types from cultures by fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS), and patch clamp electrophysiology of cultured cells. Cover by Jessica Iannuzzi.