DVT: a high-throughput analysis pipeline for locomotion and social behavior in adult Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

Background Drosophila melanogaster is excellent animal model for understanding the molecular basis of human neurological and motor disorders. The experimental conditions and chamber design varied between studies. Moreover, most previously established paradigms focus on fly trace detection algorithm development. A comprehensive understanding on how fly behaves in the chamber is still lacking. Results In this report, we established 74 unique behavior metrics quantifying spatiotemporal characteristics of adult fly locomotion and social behaviors, of which 49 were newly proposed. By the aiding of the developed analysis pipeline, Drosophila video tracking (DVT), we identified siginificantly different patterns of fly behavior confronted with different chamber height, fly density, illumination and experimental time. Meanwhile, three fly strains which are widely used as control lines, Canton-S(CS), w1118 and Oregon-R (OR), were found to exhibit distinct motion explosiveness and exercise endurance. Conclusions We believe the proposed behavior metrics set and pipeline should help identify subtle spatial and temporal differences of drosophila behavior confronted with different environmental factors or gene variants.

The astrocyte-enriched gene deathstar plays a crucial role in the development, locomotion, and lifespan of D. melanogaster

“…For the average forward speed of each group, FlyTrDT records the moving speed of each indoor fruit fly and analyzes the average speed of 10 fruit flies per second. For the trajectory map, FlyTrDT records the movement of each indoor fruit fly, then analyzes and plots the movement trajectories of 10 fruit flies in each chamber, including the movement trajectories of the entire group and the movement trajectories of each fruit fly in the group [ 42 , 43 ].…”

KDM5-mediated transcriptional activation of ribosomal protein genes alters translation efficiency to regulate mitochondrial metabolism in neurons

“…The protocol for quantifying locomotion assay was adapted from Mi et al. ( 34 ). Seven to ten male or female flies less than seven days old were anesthetized and portioned into vials containing standard fly medium 24 h prior to testing.…”