Figure 1. WormRuler software can be used to identify changes in body length in C elegans.:A) The graphical user interface (GUI) of WormRuler. B) The input and outputs of WormRuler. (1) An example still image of a raw video recorded of a single worm. Example images of the output videos after background correction (2) and skeletonization (3). Processing steps "normalize data" (4) and "analyze data" (5) result in *.txt and *.xlsx formats, respectively. C) Mean (+SEM) relative body length of animals expressing
unc-47p::ChrimsonSA or
unc-47p::ChR2(H134R)::YFP. Videos of animals with (+) or without (-) ATR were acquired and analyzed with WormRuler. A 10 s light stimulus (either 590-650 nm for ChrimsonSA activation or 450-490 nm for ChR2(H134R) activation) was applied after 5 s. Experiments were performed on 2-3 days with animals picked from different plates. D) Group analysis of data in (C), interval during (8-12 s) illumination with n=29 (ChrimsonSA, +ATR), n=17 (ChrimsonSA, -ATR) and n=31 (ChR2, +ATR). Unpaired t-test; *p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001, ns not significant; error bars are s.e.m; n is the total number of animals.