Behavior analysis of plant-parasitic nematode in a microchannel

This paper presents a novel PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) device to analyze behaviors of plant-parasitic nematode, Meloidogyne incognita. For allowing the nematodes to swim in micro analyzed area, we developed a protocol of loading an agarose gel into microchannels by power-free pumping method. We experimentally confirmed that microchannel array 5 μm wide, which is narrower than the body width of the nematodes, can efficiently confine the nematodes in analyzed area. Additionally, the microchannel array can generate chemical concentration gradients in the microchannel without external power sources when analyzing chemotaxis assay of the nematodes. We successfully demonstrated a chemotaxis assay of the nematode Meloidogyne incognita by using the developed on-chip device.