A challenge in sea elegance research is isolating the effects of a live bacterial diet from the effects of experimental manipulations. It can be difficult to determine whether the manipulation directly impacts the host or indirectly impacts the worms through a host microbiome interactions. Paraformaldehyde treated bacteria address the challenge of isolating the effects of bacterial metabolism from host physiology.
Paraformaldehyde treatment is high throughput and consistently renders the bacteria replicate and metabolically inactive. In addition to its consistency PFA treated bacteria remain a palatable and nutritious food source.
