Many people think that a day of a scientist usually consists of some kinds of mundane and repetitive routine, which is surrounded by toxic chemicals and lifeless machines. Let me tell you, while the routine part bears some truth in it, there is always something new to learn everyday and it is this that makes my day in the lab not as painfully boring or even exciting, contrary to the common stereotype associated with scientists.
Usually, the ‘routine’ starts with plating worms that were bleached the day before on agar plates to keep them growing until they reach the right stage for screening. Then, I would check the plates that I am monitoring to assess whether the worms are in the right developmental stage. This usually involves the use of a bright-field microscope to have a look at the approximate size. Then I would proceed to pick those that I think have reached the desired 4-cell stage for screening under the compound microscope, where I can view the anchor cell and the basement membrane with the help of green and mCherry fluorescence. This is where the exciting part comes in as there is a variety of phenotypes for the basement membrane at this stage. Normally, there will be a hole that is pierced by the anchor cell. However, in mutants which I am working on, there are cases whereby the piercing is blocked or multiple holes are formed.
To go even further, I use the confocal microscope to take photos of the worm in multiple stacks, which allow me to reconstruct the 3D configuration of the worm. It is really interesting to see the anchor cell and the hole it forms on the basement membrane in 3D, with their corresponding fluorescences. At this stage, I can compare the phenotype of the worm with known phenotypes and try to figure out which gene mutation may cause the phenotype in question. Besides the microscopy (which takes up around 70% of my time), I also carry out some mating between the male and hermaphrodite worms (Yes, there are no females.). It is sometimes tricky to figure out their differences as they only differ as the males have a tiny triangle in their ends. But with time comes experience, definitely. Another microscope in my lab (Yep, we have a wide diversity of microscopes), which also happens to be my favorite, is called the Discovery where I can look at worms under fluorescence without picking them onto slides. Hence, you can see all the green fluorescent heads swimming around in the agar plate. It is just spectacular.
And at the end of it all, I usually wrap up my day by bleaching worms, aka removing the adults and keeping the eggs for synchronization of development, in order to plate them when the new day comes and hopefully see something new to learn, and to be amazed…
