Planarian Exposure to Agrochemicals

For each experiment, at least 30 adult planarians were exposed to either IO water or 100 µM of either glyphosate, RR, or RC. This concentration was chosen as it was the highest concentration that was sublethal for all three chemical formulations. As an assay positive control for AChE inhibition, planarians were exposed to either 0.178 µM diazinon (CAS # 333-41–5, Sigma-Aldrich) in 0.5% dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO, Sigma-Aldrich) or to 0.5% DMSO (solvent control). This concentration of diazinon has robustly caused significant planarian AChE inhibition in our laboratory (Ireland et al, 2022 (link)). Planarians were exposed in tissue culture-treated 12-well plates, with 6 planarians in 1.2 mL of the test solution per well, thus keeping the ratio of chemical/planarian consistent with the HTS set-up. Any fission events or planarians from wells with death were excluded from the assay.