The Clegg Lab published an abstract in the latest Worm Breeder's
Gazette describing a new axenic medium that allows development of L1s
to gravid adults under axenic conditions in about 3 days. That
abstract contains a link to our home page where the preparation of
the CeHR medium is described.
We are using that system to synchronously produce large numbers of
gravid adults for genomic and proteomic studies. As many as 500,000
synchronized L1s have been produced at one time, and it would be
possible to produce more. For this, we routinely maintain
synchronized axenic liquid cultures in CeHR medium. When the culture
reaches early gravid adult stage, the adults are bleached and the
embryos placed into M9 and held overnight to hatch. The M9 prevents
further development. The next day, the synchronized L1s are placed
into CeHR and allowed to develop to the desired stage.
I hope this is helpful.
Eric Clegg
