Fig. 1.

Characterization of the immobility response of daf-2(e1391) animals. a We compared the spontaneous movement of wild-type N2 and daf-2(e1391) animals grown at 15 or 25°C under different conditions: food, food plus DMSO, no food, and no food plus DMSO, as indicated in the figure. A χ² analysis revealed significant differences from the appropriate control group (food with no DMSO or food plus DMSO), as noted with the asterisks: ** p < 0.01. b Still frames from video clips revealing spontaneous movement (upper two rows) or locomotion in response to tail touch (bottom row). The time elapsed in seconds is shown at the lower right-hand corner of each frame. The nose moved slightly from frame 1 to frame 2 of the daf-2(e1391) panel in the middle, otherwise the animal remained in the same place for the entire 15-s video, which is characteristic of this strain. The normal sinusoidal movements in response to touch continued well beyond the frames shown in the bottom row. c We evaluated 3 mutant strains to determine if they became immobile in response to brief food deprivation plus DMSO exposure. We found significant differences (** p < 0.01) when comparing unc-64(e246) animals off food plus DMSO with those on food plus DMSO, unc-31(e169) animals off food with those on food, and unc-31(e169) animals off food plus DMSO with those on food plus DMSO.