10. Pull-Off Adhesion Measurements on C. Elegans

The surface adhesion between C. elegans and the agar plates on which they are commonly grown has yet to be accurately quantified. C. elegans are a scientifically important species of nematode whose simple structure allowed the first mapping of the complete nervous system in a multicellular organism. One of the current topics of research in the C. elegans community is the investigation of neuronal function in locomotion. Locomotion models derived from mathematical analysis of nematode motion and surface interaction are frequently employed to investigate the influence of neuronal function in locomotion. Surface interactions, such as adhesion energy, play a critical role in the development of these models, but measurements of these parameters have not yet been performed. This paper presents the measurement of surface adhesion energy of nematodes on agar surfaces using a direct pull-off experiment. Adhesion energy was found to be W = 4.94 ± 1.19 mJ/m² for the wild type.