Fig. 1.

Experimental design used to test the effect of solvents on pharyngeal pumping.

Volumes of DMSO, ethanol and acetone were soaked into NGM-medium to reach the desired v/v (%) concentrations (0.05–1 %). An E. coli OP50 lawn was created in the center of individual wells using a volume of 50 μl of bacterial culture. Control wells without any solvent were included within individual plates as an untreated condition reference. (1). After solvent equilibration into testing wells (represented by light green shadow) 1-day-old adult worms (L4 + 1) grown at 20 °C were picked onto the middle of the E. coli OP50 bacterial lawn (2). 10 min after picking, the pharyngeal pumping of individual animals was monitored at indicated times (3).