What is E coli OP50?

OP50 is an Escherichia coli strain conventionally used as a bacterial food in the laboratory maintenance of Caenorhabditis elegans on agar plates. It has also been used to feed C.

What are seeded NGM plates used for?

Seeding Plates to use for Culturing Worms You will need the following: NGM plates (determine the number you need to seed, then add a few extra) Bacterial culture in LB broth (made as above) 5 ml or 10 ml sterile disposable pipet(s)

How do you take care of C. elegans?

Use contaminated C. elegans stock plates that have many gravid hermaphrodites. Wash the plates with sterile H2O. Pipet the H2O across the plate several times to loosen worms and eggs that are stuck in the bacteria.

How do you thaw C. elegans?

Place the box in a −80°C freezer overnight (or for at least 12 hours). The next day transfer the vials to their permanent freezer locations. Thaw one vial as a tester to check how well the worms survived the freezing (See Protocol 9).

Is the OP50 a strain of E coli?

Since REL606 is an E. coli B strain, this confirms the widespread annotation of E. coli OP50 as an E. coli B strain.

What kind of bacteria is OP50 derived from?

OP50 is a uracil auxotroph derived from the standard E. coli strain B. We can use other bacteria for culturing C. elegans, depending on the purpose of our experiments. For instance, HT115 is an RNAse III-deficient strain used for RNAi feeding experiments.

What kind of food is OP50 used for?

OP50 is an Escherichia coli strain conventionally used as a bacterial food in the laboratory maintenance of Caenorhabditis elegans on agar plates.

Why is OP50 used as a model organism?

The E. coli strain OP50 is widely used because Sydney Brenner, who first introduced C. elegans as a model organism, maintained them on this strain. OP50 is a uracil auxotroph derived from the standard E. coli strain B. We can use other bacteria for culturing C. elegans, depending on the purpose of our experiments.