SLIME TRAIL VISUALIZATION

Slime-trail staining protocol (contributed by Emily Yuan and Debbie Sorocco)

Procedure

1. Take a petri dish in which a worm had spent some time, remove it, and carefully pour out the water.
2. Use a dilute suspension of baby powder (white) or carmine (red) in water to coat the bottom of the dish.
3. After letting the dishes sit for a while (enough time for the fine powder to mostly come out of suspension, about 1 hour), pour the remaining liquid out. You might need to carefully rinse the dish with water to get rid of excess powder but be very careful not to dislodge the powder stuck to the slime trail. Putting it on a rotary shaker at very slow speed for an hour is a good way to do this.
4. Let it dry overnight before taking pictures. The trails should be easily visible, and look like this: PDF

This protocol is from Levin laboratory under Dr. Michael Levin at Tufts University.

PROTOCOL DEX