Antibody staining  (in  Tubes)

1.  Using a pasteur pipette (drawn in flame and cut open), transfer worm carcasses with attached gonads to a small  (6 mm (O.D.) x 35mm) glass culture tube (Kimax brand).  Spin 1 min @ setting 2 in clinical benchtop centrifuge and remove super.  Wash once with PBS.

2.  Dilute primary and secondary antibodies in Blocking buffer and incubate as follows:
  *Blocking buffer 1 ­ 2 hr
  *Primary Ab :  4 hr or longer with occasional mixing (Overnight at room temp is probably best) in Blocking buffer.  Optimum dilution has to be decided empirically for each Ab.
  *Wash in PBTw,  3 x 5 min or more and longer if you have background problem.
  *Secondary Ab: Prior to incubation, preabsorbed with worm formaldehyde/acetone powder at least 4 hr at RT or overnight at 4 oC with occasional mixing in Blocking buffer, spun down for 5 min at maximum speed, take super, and incubate at least 4 hr at RT or overnight at 4 oC (Overnight at 4 oC is probably best).
  *Wash in PBTw,  3-4 x 5 min
*Wash in PBS containing 100 ng/ml DAPI.
*Wash in PBTw, once
*Place in 80% glycerol containing anti-fade reagent (e.g., Dapco) about 20 ­ 30 ul.
 Ab penetration is slower for dissected gonads than for embryos; hence, the longer incubation is better.

3.  Using a drawn and cut open capillary mouse pipette,  transfer settled worms onto a large 2% agar pad that covers most of a slide.  Will probably need to make several slides.  After drawing off exess liquid with a capillary, an eyelash hair (or finely drawn capillary) can be used to push gonads and intestines away from one another.  Cover with a large (24 x 50 mm) coverslip, taking care not to move the coverslip once in place.   Also do not seal the coverslip immediately -- image will improve as liquid evaporates and gonads become somewhat flattened.  Slides can be stored at 4 0 for a week or more, particularly if sealed with nail polish or rubber cement around the periphery of the coverslip.

For Smaller numbers of animals:
If working with small numbers of aniamls, all steps of the above steps can be done in a glass dish or depression slide.   As this requires that all steps be done while viewing in the dissecting scope it is tedious.

Materials

PBS -- Sambrook et al. Molecular Cloning book.
PBS/0.2 mM Levamisole (from 100 mM Levamisole stock).
PBS/0.1% Tween 20   (PBTw)
Blocking buffer; 30 % goat serum in PBTw  or  1 mg/ml BSA in PBTw.
3% Formaldehyde/0.1 M K2HPO4  (pH7.2). Prepared from sealed ampoules of 16% EM grade formaldehyde (EM Sciences). Freeze any excess.
formaldehyde/acetone powder ­ fix large quantity of mixed stage N2 with formaldehyde for 4 hrs and postfix with acetone for 10 min, wash with PBS several times, pass through French Press twice at 10, 000 psi, wash twice with PBS with 0.02 % sodium azide, and lyophilize the pellet to become powder.
fluorescent affinity-purified secondary Ab (from Chemicon or your preferred company).
DAPI -- 100 ug/ml stock solution. Dilute 1:1000 in PBS
Levamisole (Sigma) stock:  100 mM in dH20 (store @ -200C).
Methanol: 100% stock kept at -20 0C