Worm Breeder's Gazette 4(1): 17a

These abstracts should not be cited in bibliographies. Material contained herein should be treated as personal communication and should be cited as such only with the consent of the author.

Title unknown.

Authors unknown.

Whilst looking for mycoplasmal contamination of supposedly axenic 
cultures of C.  briggsae and C.  elegans, I have examined a few worms 
with the fluorescent compound DAPI (4 -6 -diamidino-2-phenylindole) 
which specifically binds to DNA.  As a result, all cell nuclei (
somatic, gonadal and embryonical cell nuclei in the eggs) were seen as 
brightly fluorescing spots on a dark background.  Mycoplasmal 
infection within the cells, if any, would be hardly detectable among 
the crowded highly fluorescing nuclei.  Experiments are in progress to 
detect mycoplasms (and other possible benign contaminants, e.g., slow 
growing bacteria) in the culture medium.
Nematodes were fixed with Carnoy s fixative (3:1 methanol/glacial 
acetic acid), stained with DAPI (0.2  g/ml in the salt base of CbMM 
medium) for approximately 30 minutes and examined using the 
appropriate exciter and barrier filter system (Russell, et. al., 
Nature 253, 461, 1975).