Microinjection is an established and reliable method to deliver transgenic constructs and other reagents to specific locations in C. elegans worms. Specifically, microinjection of a desired DNA construct into the distal gonad is the most widely used method to generate germ-line transformation of C. elegans. Although, current C. elegans microinjection method is effective to produce transgenic worms, it requires expensive multi degree of freedom (DOF) micromanipulator, careful injection alignment procedure and skilled operator, all of which make it slow and not suitable for scaling to high throughput. A few microfabricated microinjectors have been developed recently to address these issues. However, none of them are capable of immobilizing a freely mobile animal such as C. elegans worm using a passive immobilization mechanism. Here, a microfluidic microinjector was developed to passively immobilize a freely mobile animal such as C. elegans and simultaneously perform microinjection by using a simple and fast mechanism for needle actuation. The entire process of the microinjection takes ~30 s which includes 10 s for worm loading and aligning, 5 s needle penetration, 5 s reagent injection and 5 s worm unloading. The device is suitable for high-throughput and can be potentially used for creating transgenic C. elegans.

中文翻译：

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微流线虫秀丽隐杆线虫的微流控装置。

显微注射是一种建立可靠的方法，可将转基因构建体和其他试剂递送至秀丽隐杆线虫中的特定位置。具体地，将期望的DNA构建体显微注射到性腺远端是产生秀丽隐杆线虫种系转化的最广泛使用的方法。虽然目前的秀丽隐杆线虫显微注射方法可有效产生转基因蠕虫，它需要昂贵的多自由度（DOF）显微操纵器，仔细的注射比对程序和熟练的操作人员，所有这些都使其速度缓慢且不适合缩放至高通量。最近已经开发了一些微型制造的微型注射器来解决这些问题。但是，它们都不能使用被动固定机制固定自由移动的动物，例如秀丽隐杆线虫。在这里，开发了一种微流体微型注射器来被动固定自由移动的动物，例如秀丽隐杆线虫并使用简单快速的针头驱动机制同时执行显微注射。显微注射的整个过程大约需要30 s，其中包括10 s的蠕虫装载和对准，5 s的针头穿透，5 s的试剂注射和5 s的蠕虫卸载。该设备适用于高通量，可潜在地用于创建转基因秀丽隐杆线虫。