Fig. 1. The pharynx skinning procedure. (A) Schematic of the C. elegans pharynx as it is positioned in the worm's head. To dissect the pharynx, the head is cut off between the pharynx and the intestine. Three compartments of the pharynx are shown. Area of patch pipette attachment (shaded area of the corpus) roughly corresponds to the pm4 muscle cell of the pharynx. (B) Cut-off worm's head. (C) Body wall inversion using two pipettes. The smaller pipette (left) is pushed into the bigger one, inverting the body wall. (D) Skinned and digested pharynx, before patching. TB, terminal bulb.