Loading…

Defining the viability of tardigrades with a molecular sensor related to death

The design of experimental protocols that use animal models to assess the impact of a stress on a population or to determine the life span expectancy impact can be time-consuming due to the need for direct observations of dead and living animals. These experiments are usually based on the detectable...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2018-10, Vol.13 (10), p.e0206444
Main Authors: Richaud, Myriam, Galas, Simon
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The design of experimental protocols that use animal models to assess the impact of a stress on a population or to determine the life span expectancy impact can be time-consuming due to the need for direct observations of dead and living animals. These experiments are usually based on the detectable activity of animals such as food intake or mobility and can sometimes produce either under- or overestimated results. The tardigrade Hypsibius exemplaris is an emerging model for the evolutionary biology of the tardigrade phylum because of its convenient laboratory breeding and the recent introduction of new molecular tools. In this report, we describe the use of a new fluorescent dye that can specifically stain dead tardigrades. Furthermore, we also monitored the absence of a toxic side effect of the death-linked fluorescent dye on tardigrade populations. Finally, we conclude that tardigrade experiments that require survival counting of the Hypsibius exemplaris species can be greatly improved by using this technique in order to limit underestimation of alive animals.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0206444