Planarian Ovary Dissection for Ultrastructural Analysis and Antibody Staining

Summary

This protocol presents steps taken to dissect ovaries in the freshwater planarians, Schmidtea mediterranea. The dissected ovaries are compatible for antibody immunostaining and ultrastructural analysis with transmission electron microscopy to study the cell biology of the oocytes and somatic cells, providing an imaging depth and quality that were previously inaccessible.

Abstract

Accessibility to germ cells allows the study of germ cell development, meiosis, and recombination. The sexual biotype of the freshwater planarian, Schmidtea mediterranea, is a powerful invertebrate model to study the epigenetic specification of germ cells. Unlike the large number of testis and male germ cells, planarian oocytes are relatively difficult to locate and examine, as there are only two ovaries, each with 5-20 oocytes. Deeper localization within the planarian body and lack of protective epithelial tissues also make it challenging to dissect planarian ovaries directly.

This protocol uses a brief fixation step to facilitate the localization and dissection of planarian ovaries for downstream analysis to overcome these difficulties. The dissected ovary is compatible for ultrastructural examination by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and antibody immunostaining. The dissection technique outlined in this protocol also allows for gene perturbation experiments, in which the ovaries are examined under different RNA interference (RNAi) conditions. Direct access to the intact germ cells in the ovary achieved by this protocol will greatly improve the imaging depth and quality and allow cellular and subcellular interrogation of oocyte biology.

Introduction

Planarian anatomy has been examined by using TEM in many tissues^1,2,3,4,5,6. However, little attention has been given to ovaries or oocytes. The paucity of oocyte literature is partly due to the difficulty accessing these cells, leaving the biology of planarian oocytes largely unexplored. Molecular tools have uncovered many regulatory mechanisms of ovary development in the planarians using light or fluorescence microscopy^7,

Protocol

1. Preparation

1. Prepare worms: feed sexual planarians twice a week with organic liver paste to achieve sexual maturity.
   NOTE: Generally, such worms are bigger than 1 cm in length and have a gonopore posterior to the pharynx opening.
2. Prepare solutions.
   1. Prepare the following reagents: 16% paraformaldehyde (PFA); 50% glutaraldehyde (GA) aqueous solution; N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC); 1x phosphate-buffered saline (PBS): 137 mM NaCl, 2.7 mM KCl, 8 mM Na₂HPO4, and 2 mM KH2PO4.

Discussion

These fixation-based procedures for dissecting planarian ovaries will facilitate the understanding of oocyte meiosis as well as ovary development and regeneration. The sizes of the oocytes and their somatic supportive cells can range from 20 µm to 50 µm. Dissection-based methods will provide accessibility to intact single-ovary cells that sectioning or whole-mount-based methods cannot achieve. This protocol will facilitate the study of intact planarian ovary anatomy and oocyte cell biology at cellular and subce.......

Materials

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
16% paraformaldehyde	Electron Microscopy Sciences	15710	EM grade
2% aqueous OsO4	Electron Microscopy Sciences	19152
50% glutaraldehyde	Electron Microscopy Sciences	16320	EM grade
Digital Micrograph	Gatan Inc.		Version 2.33.97.1, TEM data collection
Epon resin	Electron Microscopy Sciences	14120	Embed 812 Kit, liquid, epoxy resin
Ethanol	Ted Pella	19207	Denatured
Hoechst 33342	Thermo Fisher Scientific	H3570
Horse serum	Sigma	H1138
Lead Acetate	Electron Microscopy Sciences	6080564
MilliQ water			reverse-osmosis treated water
N-Acetyl-L-cysteine	Sigma	A7250
Parafilm	sigma	P7793
Prolong Diamond Antifade Mountant	Thermo Fisher Scientific	P36965
Propylene oxide	Electron Microscopy Sciences	75569	EM grade
Proteinase K	Thermo Fisher Scientific	25530049
Toluidine blue O	Electron Microscopy Sciences	92319
Transmission Electron Microscope	FEI		Tecnai G2 Spirit BioTWIN
Uranyl acetate	Electron Microscopy Sciences	541093