Automated monitoring and quantitative analysis of feeding behaviour in Drosophila

Itskov, Pavel M.; Moreira, José-Maria; Vinnik, Ekaterina; Lopes, Gonçalo; Safarik, Steve; Dickinson, Michael H.; Ribeiro, Carlos

doi:10.1038/ncomms5560

Cited by 201 publications

(307 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…For simplicity, we assumed that time spent on food correlates with food consumption and considered that flies ate from each diet at the same constant rate (for finer-scale patterns, see Itskov et al, 2014). We did not consider the time spent laying eggs on food, which is typically accomplished within 1 min (Yang et al, 2008) and is therefore negligible for the duration of our observations.…”

Section: Experiments 3: Interaction Between Feeding and Egg-laying Prementioning

confidence: 99%

Drosophila females trade off good nutrition with high quality oviposition sites when choosing foods

Lihoreau

Poissonnier

Isabel

et al. 2016

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Animals, from insects to humans, select foods to regulate their acquisition of key nutrients in amounts and balances that maximise fitness. In species in which the nutrition of juveniles depends on parents, adults must make challenging foraging decisions that simultaneously address their own nutrient needs as well as those of their progeny. Here, we examined how the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, a species in which individuals eat and lay eggs in decaying fruits, integrate feeding decisions (individual nutrition) and oviposition decisions (offspring nutrition) when foraging. Using cafeteria assays with artificial diets varying in concentrations and ratios of protein to carbohydrates, we show that D. melanogaster females exhibit complex foraging patterns, alternating between laying eggs on high carbohydrate foods and feeding on foods with different nutrient contents depending on their own nutritional state. Although larvae showed faster development on high protein foods, both survival and learning performance were higher on balanced foods. We suggest that the apparent mismatch between the oviposition preference of females for high carbohydrate foods and the high performances of larvae on balanced foods reflects a natural situation where high carbohydrate ripened fruits gradually enrich in proteinaceous yeast as they start rotting, thereby yielding optimal nutrition for the developing larvae. Our findings that animals with rudimentary parental care uncouple feeding and egg-laying decisions in order to balance their own diet and provide a nutritionally optimal environment to their progeny reveal unsuspected levels of complexity in the nutritional ecology of parent-offspring interactions.

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Section: Experiments 3: Interaction Between Feeding and Egg-laying Prementioning

confidence: 99%

Drosophila females trade off good nutrition with high quality oviposition sites when choosing foods

Lihoreau

Poissonnier

Isabel

et al. 2016

Journal of Experimental Biology

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“…After about a year of using Bonsai in an active neuroscience research institute, dozens of different experimental protocols and data analysis pipelines have been successfully implemented using the provided building blocks (Gouvêa et al, 2014;Itskov et al, 2014;Tecuapetla et al, 2014). We were surprised by the diversity of applications and by the pace at which new modules and devices were developed and integrated.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A paradigmatic example was the flyPAD, a new method for quantifying feeding behavior in Drosophila melanogaster by measuring changes in electrode capacitance induced by the proboscis extension of a fly (Itskov et al, 2014). The integration of the flyPAD in Bonsai allowed researchers to quickly get started using this approach to design new experiments.…”

Section: Applicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Individual Drosophila melanogaster flies were allowed to freely feed on the flyPAD (Itskov et al, 2014) while their feeding behavior was monitored at 50 Hz with a video camera (Flea3, Point Gray, CA) mounted on a Zeiss Discovery v.12 Stereo Microscope (Carl Zeiss, DE). flyPAD measures fly's behavior on the food source by recording the capacitance at 100 Hz between the electrode on which the fly stands and the food.…”

Section: Recording Drosophila Feeding Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

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Bonsai: An event-based framework for processing and controlling data streams

Lopes

Bonacchi

Frazão

et al. 2014

Preprint

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The design of modern scientific experiments requires the control and monitoring of many different data streams. However, the serial execution of programming instructions in a computer makes it a challenge to develop software that can deal with the asynchronous, parallel nature of scientific data. Here we present Bonsai, a modular, high-performance, open-source visual programming framework for the acquisition and online processing of data streams. We describe Bonsai's core principles and architecture and demonstrate how it allows for the rapid and flexible prototyping of integrated experimental designs in neuroscience. We specifically highlight some applications that require the combination of many different hardware and software components, including video tracking of behavior, electrophysiology and closed-loop control of stimulation.

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“…Although the behaviors of flies can be measured without directly observing their movements (Mendes et al 2013;Itskov et al 2014;Seeds et al 2014;Albin et al 2015;Egnor and Branson 2016), here we focus on video recording and annotating the movements of flies. Chambers should not only allow flies to perform the behavior of interest, but their design must also facilitate the recording of fly movements such that specific features of the movements can be annotated.…”

Section: Hardware For Thermo-and Optogenetic Behavioral Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Targeted manipulation of neuronal activity in behaving adult flies

Hampel

Seeds

2016

Preprint

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The ability to control the activity of specific neurons in freely behaving animals provides an effective way to probe the contributions of neural circuits to behavior. Wide interest in studying principles of neural circuit function using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has fueled the construction of an extensive transgenic toolkit for performing such neural manipulations. Here we describe approaches for using these tools to manipulate the activity of specific neurons and assess how those manipulations impact the behavior of flies. We also describe methods for examining connectivity among multiple neurons that together form a neural circuit controlling a specific behavior. This work provides a resource ABSTRACTThe ability to control the activity of specific neurons in freely behaving animals provides an effective way to probe the contributions of neural circuits to behavior. Wide interest in studying principles of neural circuit function using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has fueled the construction of an extensive transgenic toolkit for performing such neural manipulations. Here we describe approaches for using these tools to manipulate the activity of specific neurons and assess how those manipulations impact the behavior of flies. We also describe methods for examining connectivity among multiple neurons that together form a neural circuit controlling a specific behavior. This work provides a resource for researchers interested in examining how neurons and neural circuits contribute to the rich repertoire of behaviors performed by flies.

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Automated monitoring and quantitative analysis of feeding behaviour in Drosophila

Cited by 201 publications

References 57 publications

Drosophila females trade off good nutrition with high quality oviposition sites when choosing foods

Drosophila females trade off good nutrition with high quality oviposition sites when choosing foods

Bonsai: An event-based framework for processing and controlling data streams

Targeted manipulation of neuronal activity in behaving adult flies

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