Du Preez, G.Fourie, H.Miller, H.Ricci, C.Engelbrecht, G.Zouhar, M.Wepener, V.2020-03-312020-03-312020Du Preez, G. et al. 2020. Oxygen consumption rate of Caenorhabditis elegans as a high-throughput endpoint of toxicity testing using the Seahorse XFe96 Extracellular Flux Analyze. Scientific reports, 10(1): #4239. [https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-61054-7]2045-2322 (Online)http://hdl.handle.net/10394/34454https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-61054-7.pdfhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-61054-7Caenorhabditis elegans presents functioning, biologically relevant phenotypes and is frequently used as a bioindicator of toxicity. However, most C. elegans in vivo effect-assessment methods are laborious and time consuming. Therefore, we developed a novel method to measure the oxygen consumption rate of C. elegans as a sublethal endpoint of toxicity. This protocol was tested by exposing 50 larval stage one C. elegans individuals for 48 h (at 20 °C) to different concentrations of two toxicants i.e. benzylcetyldimethylammonium chloride (BAC-C16) and cadmium (Cd). Following exposures, the oxygen consumption rate of the C. elegans individuals were measured using the high-throughput functionality of the Seahorse XFe96 Extracellular Flux Analyzer. Dose-response curves for BAC-C16 (R2 = 0.93; P = 0.001) and Cd (R2 = 0.98; P = 0.001) were created. Furthermore, a strong, positive correlation was evidenced between C. elegans oxygen consumption rate and a commonly used, ecologically relevant endpoint of toxicity (growth inhibition) for BAC-C16 (R2 = 0.93; P = 0.0001) and Cd (R2 = 0.91; P = 0.0001). The data presented in this study show that C. elegans oxygen consumption rate can be used as a promising functional measurement of toxicityenCaenorhabditis elegansHigh-throughput screeningToxicologyArticle