Begin by placing a new NGM plate devoid of E.coli and DFA onto an aluminum plate On the stage of a macro zoom microscope. Use a Peltier temperature controller unit to maintain the plate bottom at 23 degrees Celsius temperature for at least five minutes. Next, replace the plate with the lid of a plate that the nematode worms have climbed up onto.
Increase the temperature of the plate bottom to 26 degrees Celsius to change the interior humidity. Now, capture images of the inner surface of the plate lid at 20 frames per second using the microscope camera, keep the ZX899 worms on DFA, maintaining this condition for five minutes before illumination. Now illuminate the ZX899 worms attached to a Petri plate lid, maintained at 23 degrees Celsius.
Capture the images of the inner plate surface at 20 frames per second. Increased humidity exhibited larger compartment sizes of the worm network patterns before ultimately collapsing, leaving dormant worm clusters on the inner surface of the lid.