Rearing C. elegans on Parafilm-wrapped NGM Plates Impacts Habituation Behavior

Scientists use Parafilm to seal Caenorhabditis elegans cultures on Nematode Growth Media (NGM) petri plates for short-term storage to reduce the likelihood of contamination and improve moisture retention. However, we found that maintaining worms on plates wrapped with Parafilm can affect multiple behavioral metrics when assaying tap-habituation behavior using the Multi-Worm Tracker (MWT). Most notably, worms cultured on parafilm-wrapped NGM plates exhibited slower speed of initial response to tap followed by marked sensitization. These findings suggest that labs should be conscious of the possibility that Parafilm may induce behavioral changes in C. elegans when conducting experiments.