Inducing Dauer State in C. elegans

Animals were induced into dauer by starvation as well as recovered on peptone-less NGM plates seeded with E. coli OP50 pre-loaded with oleic acid (NuChek Prep, Inc.; Elysian, Minnesota) as described by Devkota et al., 2017 (link). OP50 was grown overnight at 37°C in liquid LB supplemented with 600 μM of oleic acid or with an equivalent volume of ethanol (the oleic acid solvent) to serve as the control. Cultures were pelleted and washed several times with M9 buffer (Stiernagle, 2006 ) and resuspended at a 10x concentration. The 10x OP50 was seeded onto peptone-less NGM plates and allowed to dry overnight before use. At least three independent replicates were performed.