Live-cell Imaging and Analysis of Germline Stem Cell Mitosis in Caenorhabditis elegans

Abstract

Model organisms offer the opportunity to decipher the dynamic and complex behavior of stem cells in their native environment; however, imaging stem cells in situ remains technically challenging. C. elegans germline stem cells (GSCs) are distinctly accessible for in situ live imaging but relatively few studies have taken advantage of this potential. Here we provide our protocol for mounting and live imaging dividing C. elegans GSCs, as well as analysis tools to facilitate the processing of large datasets. While the present protocol was optimized for imaging and analyzing mitotic GSCs, it can easily be adapted to visualize dividing cells or other subcellular processes in C. elegans at multiple developmental stages. Our image analysis pipeline can also be used to analyze mitosis in other cell types and model organisms.