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Published May 1973 | Published
Journal Article Open

Countercurrent separation: A new method for studying behavior of small aquatic organisms

Abstract

A new method for the analysis of behavior in small free-swimming aquatic organisms is described. In this procedure, called countercurrent separation, a dense solution flows down along the bottom of an inclined chamber while a light solution flows in the opposite direction, upward along the top of the chamber. The attraction of animals (injected into the center of the chamber) to one solution or the other is then determined by observing the proportion of animals that emerges from the chamber in that solution. When used with the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, it is estimated that the apparatus is equivalent to at least nine theoretical plates.

Additional Information

© 1973 by the National Academy of Sciences. Communicated by Ray D. Owen, March 5, 1973. This work was largely supported by National Institutes of Health Fellowship 5 FO2 GM 45091 from the Institute of General Medical Sciences. I thank Dr. Ray D. Owen [and his AEC contract AT(04-3)767], and Dr. Richard L. Russell (and his USPHS Grant NS 09654-02 and Sloan Foundation Grant in Neuroscience) for providing both material and intangible aid to this work. In addition, I thank Dr. Sydney Brenner for demonstrating the advantages of C. elegans for genetic studies, Dr. Ruth Pertel for the information that this nematode is attracted to salts, and Dr. Samuel Ward for communicating the results of his studies on chemotaxis in C. elegans prior to publication.

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August 22, 2023
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