Abstract
Nematodes such as Caenorhabditis elegans offer a very effective and tractable system to probe the underlying mechanisms of diverse sensory behaviors. Numerous platforms exist for quantifying nematode behavior and often require separate dependencies or software. Here I describe a novel and simple tool called NemaCount that provides a versatile solution for the quantification of nematode chemotaxis behavior. The ease of installation and user-friendly interface makes NemaCount a practical tool for measuring diverse behaviors and image features of nematodes such as C. elegans. The main advantage of NemaCount is that it operates from within a modern browser such as Google Chrome or Apple Safari. Any features that change in total number, size, shape, or angular distance between control and experimental preparations are suited to NemaCount for image analysis, while commonly used chemotaxis assays can be quantified, and statistically analyzed using a suite of functions from within NemaCount. NemaCount also offers image filtering options that allow the user to improve object detection and measurements. NemaCount was validated by examining nematode chemotaxis behavior; angular distances of locomotory tracks in C. elegans; and body lengths of Heterorhabditis bacteriophora nematodes. Apart from a modern browser, no additional software is required to operate NemaCount, making NemaCount a cheap, simple option for the analysis of nematode images and chemotaxis behavior.
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Acknowledgments
I thank members of the O’Halloran laboratory for critical reading of the manuscript.
Funding
The George Washington University (GWU) Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, GWU Office of the Vice-President for Research, and the GWU Department of Biological Sciences. Some strains were provided by the Caenorhabditis Genetics Center (CGC), which is funded by NIH Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (P40 OD010440).
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D.M.O’H conceived the idea for NemaCount, wrote the code, and wrote the manuscript.
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O’Halloran, D.M. NemaCount: quantification of nematode chemotaxis behavior in a browser. Invert Neurosci 16, 5 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10158-016-0188-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10158-016-0188-1