Dry-freezing infective juveniles for robust preservation of stocks.

Cryopreservation allows strains to be stored, eliminating genetic drift and maintenance costs. Existing cryopreservation methods for the economically-important entomopathogenic nematode involve multiple incubation and filtration steps to precondition the animals. The standard protocol for freezing the model organism in buffer is simpler, and a recent dry-freezing protocol allows stocks to survive multiple freeze-thaws, a possibility during a power failure.

Mass Spectrometry-Driven Discovery of Neuropeptides Mediating Nictation Behavior of Nematodes.

Neuropeptides regulate animal physiology and behavior, making them widely studied targets of functional genetics research. While the field often relies on differential -omics approaches to build hypotheses, no such method exists for neuropeptidomics. It would nonetheless be valuable for studying behaviors suspected to be regulated by neuropeptides, especially when little information is otherwise available.

Exploring neuropeptide signalling through proteomics and peptidomics.

Neuropeptides are neuro-endocrine signaling molecules capable of signaling as neurotransmitters, neuromodulators or neurohormones. Studying how neuropeptide signaling is integrated in endocrine pathways and how neuropeptides regulate endogenous processes is crucial to understanding how multicellular organisms respond to environmental and internal cues. Areas covered: This review will cover proteomics and peptidomics approaches used in researching peptide signaling systems and breakthroughs that were achieved in this field.