Team:China Tongji/Protocol

Project Introduction

In our project, we will use the technology of optogenetic and use light of different wave produced by the special light source assembled by ourselves to control the moving of C.elegans, construct a movement controlling system and bulid an amusement park of C.elegans.

We will try to design our special parts and express channalrhodopsin in specific C.elegans' neurons. To accomplish our goals to express channalrhodopsin in single neuron, we make the use of cre- loxp system and the overlapping of promoters. We not only use the traditional channalrhodopsin,chR2,but also try to express the novel channelrhodopsin, Blink, and other fancy channelrhodopsins which have never been tested in C.elegans.

And we will also get some parts and assemble those parts into a new equipment which can serves as the light source of our experiment.Then we will use computer controlling that lightsource to change the light which can activate or suppress the channelrhodopsin. By doing that, we can try to control the behaviours of C.elegans such as moving forwards or twisting more effectively.

What's more,we will express GFP,YFP,mcherry in E.coli. By combining the color of microorgasims and C.elegans, we want to construct some interesting scenes to form a C.elegans' fancy world.

This technology will be helpful in the research on neuron's function and interaction. In the future, this technology may also be used in mechanical controlling system and the theraphy of movement defect.