Figure 1. Panel A shows the force and indentation produced in response to a mechanical load applied by pushing a glass bead mounted on a self-sensing cantilever into the worm's body. Panel B shows a set of 45 force and indentation pulses to determine the overall relationship between force and indentation for a
dpy-10 (gray) and a wild-type (N2, black) L4 or young adult hermaphrodite. The force-indentation plots were fitted with a line where the slope is taken as a measure of body stiffness. Panels C-E show the measurements derived from more than 20 animals and the red bar indicates mean ± standard deviation.