Name: a simple technique to assay locomotor activity in drosophila
Uploaded: 2023-02-24T14:00:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about A Simple Technique to Assay Locomotor Activity in Drosophila at JoVE.com

This work was supported by a special launch fund from Soochow University and the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (82171414). We thank Prof. Chunfeng Liu&#39;s lab members for their discussion and comments.

W1118 adult flies and third instar larvae were used for the present study.
1. Experimental preparation
NOTE: An open-field arena for Drosophila locomotion tracking is made withacolorless and odorless silica gel.
<ol>
	<li>Mix reagent A and reagent B at a ratio of 1:10, according to the manufacturer&#39;s instructions for the silica kit (see Table of Materials). Ensure that sodium bicarbonate is added t...

<ol>
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We have designed a method, based on the open-source material AnimalTracker API compatible with the Fiji image processing program, that can enable researchers to systematically evaluate locomotor activity by tracking both adult and individual larval flies. AnimalTracke is a tool written in Java that can be easily integrated into existing databases or other tools to facilitate the analysis of application-designed animal-tracking behavior24. Upon a frame-by-frame analysis by a softw...

Drosophila melanogaster provides an excellent model organism for investigating cellular and molecular functions in neuronal disease models created by gene modification1, drug treatment2, and senescence3. The high conservation of biological pathways, physical properties, and disease-associated homolog genes between humans and Drosophila makes the fruit fly an ideal mimic from the molecular to the behavioral level4. In many disease models, behavioral deficiency is an important index, providing a helpful model for various human neuropathies5,6. Drosophila is now used to study multiple human diseases, neurodevelopment, and neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson&#39;s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis7,8. Detecting the motor ability of the disease models is crucial for understanding the pathogenic progress and may provide a phenotypic correlation to the molecular mechanisms underlying the disease process.
Recently, commercially available software tools and cost-effective programs have been developed for Drosophila locomotor detection strategies, such as high-throughput testing in grouped flies9,10 and measuring locomotion in real-time11,12. One such conventional approach is rapid interactive negative geotaxis (RING), also called the climbing assay, which includes multiple channels that allow for a large fly population with the same gender and age to be contained, reducing variation while data collecting9,13. Another pre-testing method for analyzing locomotor behavior is TriKinetics Drosophila activity monitor (DAM), a device that uses multiple beams to detect fly activity movement within a thin glass tube14. The device records position continuously, which represents automated locomotion by calculating the beam-crossings to study the activity and circadian rhythm of flies over a longer period of time15. Although these methods have been widely used in analyzing behavioral defects in fruit flies to determine changes in behavioral locomotion, they always require special testing equipment or complex analysis processes, and restrict their application in some models with a limited, simple device. Animal-tracing group-based strategies for testing the adult Drosophila, such as FlyGrAM11 and the Drosophila island assay10, implement social recruitment and individual tracking in a predefined area. Nevertheless, social individual restriction in defied areas might have a negative effect on identifications in the images, caused by the collision or overlapping of flies. Even though some open-source materials-based methods, such as TRex16, MARGO12, and FlyPi17, have an emergency, they can fast-track trace the flies with flexible usage in behavioral testing. These testing approaches are associated with elaborate experimental apparatus installations, special software requirements, or professional computer languages. For larvae, measuring the total distance traveled across the number of grid border lines per unit of time18, or rough counting the body wall contractions for individuals manually19, are the predominant methods for assessing their locomotor ability. Due to the lack of precision in equipment or devices and analysis methods, some behavioral locomotion of larvae might escape detection, making it difficult to accurately assess behavioral movement, especially fine movement15.
The present developed method utilizes the AnimalTracker application programming interface (API), compatible with the Fiji (ImageJ) image processing program, to systematically evaluate the locomotor activity of both adult and larval flies by analyzing their tracking behavior from high-definition (HD) videos. Fiji is an open-source software ImageJ distribution that can combine robust software libraries with numerous scripting languages, resulting in rapid prototyping of image processing algorithms, making it popular among biologists for its image analysis capabilities20. In the current approach, Fiji&#39;s integration into the AnimalTracker API is exploited to develop a unique Drosophila behavioral assay with personalized algorithm insertion, and provides a useful step for detailed documentation and tutorials to support robust analytical capabilities of locomotor behavior (Figure 1). To circumvent the complication of objective identifications in the images caused by the collision or overlapping of flies, each arena is restricted to hosting only one fly. Upon assessing the tracking precision of the approach, it was implemented to trace and quantify the locomotor movements of Drosophila that were administered with the toxic drug rotenone, which is generally used for animal models of Parkinson&#39;s disease, ultimately discovering locomotion impairment in the drug treatment21. This methodology, which employs open-source and free software, does not necessitate high-cost instrumentation, and can precisely and reproducibly analyze Drosophila behavioral locomotion.

<table border="1" fo:keep-together.within-page="1" fo:keep-with-next.within-page="always">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>Animal tracker</td>
			<td>Hungarian Brain Research Program</td>
			<td>version: 1.7</td>
			<td>pfficial website: http://animaltracker.elte.hu/main/downloads</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Camera software</td>
			<td>Microsoft</td>
			<td>version: 2021.105.10.0</td>
			<td>built-in windows 10 system</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Computer</td>
			<td>DELL</td>
			<td>Vostro-14-5480</td>
			<td>a comupter running win 10 system is available</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Drosophila carbon dioxide anesthesia workstation</td>
			<td>Wu han Yihong technology</td>
			<td>#YHDFPCO2-018</td>
			<td>official website: http://www.yhkjwh.com/</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Fiji software</td>
			<td>Fiji team</td>
			<td>version: 1.53v</td>
			<td>official website: https://fiji.sc/</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Format factory software</td>
			<td>Pcfreetime</td>
			<td>version: X64 5.4.5</td>
			<td>official website: http://www.pcfreetime.com/formatfactory/CN/index.html</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Graph pad prism</td>
			<td>GraphPad Software</td>
			<td>version: 8.0.2</td>
			<td>official website: https://www.graphpad-prism.cn</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Hight definition camera</td>
			<td>TTQ</td>
			<td>Jingwang2 (HD1080P F1.6 6-60mm)</td>
			<td>official website: http://www.ttq100.com/product_show.php?id=35</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Office software</td>
			<td>Microsoft</td>
			<td>version: office 2019</td>
			<td>official website: https://www.microsoftstore.com.cn/software/office</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Petri dish</td>
			<td>Bkman</td>
			<td>110301003</td>
			<td>size: 60 mm</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Silica gel</td>
			<td>DOW</td>
			<td>SYLGARD 184 Silicone Elastomer Kit</td>
			<td>Mix well according to the instructions</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Sodium bicarbonate</td>
			<td>Macklin</td>
			<td>#144-55-8</td>
			<td>Mix well with silica gel</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

a simple technique to assay locomotor activity in drosophila

Drosophila melanogaster is an ideal model organism for studying various diseases due to its abundance of advanced genetic manipulation techniques and diverse behavioral features. Identifying behavioral deficiency in animal models is a crucial measure of disease severity, for example, in neurodegenerative diseases where patients often experience impairments in motor function. However, with the availability of various systems to track and assess motor deficits in fly models, such as drug-treated or transgenic individuals, an economical and user-friendly system for precise evaluation from multiple angles is still lacking. A method based on the AnimalTracker application programming interface (API) is developed here, which is compatible with the Fiji image processing program, to systematically evaluate the movement activities of both adult and larval individuals from recorded video, thus allowing for the analysis of their tracking behavior. This method requires only a high-definition camera and a computer peripheral hardware integration to record and analyze behavior, making it an affordable and effective approach for screening fly models with transgenic or environmental behavioral deficiencies. Examples of behavioral tests using pharmacologically treated flies are given to show how the techniques can detect behavioral changes in both adult flies and larvae in a highly repeatable manner.

In the present study, locomotor deficits in adult flies and third instar larvae treated with rotenone were examined and compared in their motor activity to that of a control fly fed with the drug solvent dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). Treatment with rotenone in Drosophila has been shown to cause dopaminergic neuron loss in the brain22 and lead to significant locomotor deficits23. As shown in Figure 11 and Figure 12</st...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about A Simple Technique to Assay Locomotor Activity in Drosophila at JoVE.com

A Simple Technique to Assay Locomotor Activity in Drosophila

The present protocol assesses the locomotor activity of Drosophila by tracking and analyzing the movement of flies in a hand-made arena using open-source software Fiji, compatible with plugins to segment pixels of each frame based on high-definition video recording to calculate parameters of speed, distance, etc.

A Simple Technique to Assay Locomotor Activity in Drosophila

Drosophila melanogaster is an ideal model organism for studying various diseases due to its abundance of advanced genetic manipulation techniques and ...

The method is based on open source software to systematically evaluate the local motor activities for the tracking behavior of adult and the larvae flies from recorded video. This method requires low cost device integration to record and analyze behavior, making it an affordable and effective approach for screening fly locomotion. This technology is employed to identify behavioral modification in a fly model of human disease with local motion impairment, but it is not suitable for treating disease, disabilities, or difficulties.It is essential to clear the relevant video window during the analysis process, namely the original and the processing video window. To begin, mix reagent A and reagent B of the silica kit at a ratio of one to 10, according to the manufacturer's instructions, to prepare the open field arena for drosophila locomotion tracking. Next, set the HD camera on a tripod, adjusting it so that the camera lens is perpendicular to the surface of the silica arena.Then open the video with Fiji. Drag the progress bar to the initial frame and tacitly approve. Choose the whole body of the fly using the freehand selection tool.Click on image, adjust, and brightness and contrast to adjust the white balance until the gray value of the selected area approaches the broad background. Transfer the anesthetized fly to the open field arena. Once the fly recovers from the anesthesia, put the arena dish with the fly under the camera and shake it quickly from side to side to ensure the fly is in motion when the recording begins.Press the record button on the camera application to start video recording. Upon completion of the recording, press the stop button to terminate the video recording. Convert the recorded videos into AVI format with M-J pagan coding so they can be opened and analyzed using Fiji.Also set the frames per second of the video to 15 fps for adult flies and 12 fps for larvae. To open the video with Fiji, select the two options, use virtual stack and convert to gray scale, in the pop-up window. Obtain a processing window by using the set active image tool of the animal tracker plugin, and create a tracking area that circles the arena in the original video window, using the oval tool.Set the filters and the parameters of the two filters for the first blank frame in the processing window. Then select the next frame in the original video window, and choose the filtered surface of the processing window. Once a filtered processing window is selected, use the set threshold tool to turn the tract fly with a red profile, covered in the processing window.Then use the set blob detector to let the computer recognize the fly with a red profile, covered in the processing window. Set the last frame for the adult fly or larvae, as described in the text manuscript. Use the show blobs tool to present a tracking rectangle in the original video window.Start the tracking and export the tracking file after the monitoring is completed. Load the track and zone files using the animal tracker and tracking analyzer plugin. Select the desired index using zone settings, and alter the parameter settings.Calculate the time of the frame interval using the frame rate. Produce the quantitative analysis charts using spreadsheet software and graph pad prism, after being analyzed in the tracking analyzer. Open the track file.Copy all coordinates to Microsoft Office Excel and split the cells using the space key. To calculate the immobility time per frame interval, select all calculated results and insert a column chart to visually exhibit the immobility time by the margin of the whole column chart. To illustrate the changes in the angle of direction, select all calculated results and insert a scatter diagram.Adult flies and third Instar larvae, treated with Rotenone, had significant locomotor deficits compared to those of control flies, fed with solvent DMSO. Quantitative analysis of the Rotenone treatment in adult flies showed a significant decrease in the distance traveled and the mean velocity. And a significant increase in the immobility time.Representative graphs showed fewer peaks for the movement speed per frame interval in flies fed with Rotenone compared to those in the control, indicating the severity of the locomotor activity deficit. The institution-istic immobility column of moved pixels per frame also showed significantly less movement within one minute for Rotenone fed flies, compared to the control flies. Representative graphs illustrating the moving angle of direction changes in Rotenone fed, and control animals also revealed alterations in the direction chosen by flies.Similar results were observed for the third Instar larvae. The results revealed that the behavioral movement of tracking larvae fed with Rotenone was significantly impaired compared to the control. The most crucial step in the analysis process is forming the first of blank frame, as it evidence whether the software can check effectively.This technology could allow researchers to delve deeper into the underlying mechanism of multiple defects, such as nerve or muscle injury.

Research

JoVE Journal

Behavior

Mouse Short- and Long-term Locomotor Activity Analyzed by Video Tracking Software

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Behavioral and Locomotor Measurements Using an Open Field Activity Monitoring System for Skeletal Muscle Diseases

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Use of the Open Field Maze to Measure Locomotor and Anxiety-like Behavior in Mice

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The Treadmill Fatigue Test: A Simple, High-throughput Assay of Fatigue-like Behavior for the Mouse

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Using a Split-belt Treadmill to Evaluate Generalization of Human Locomotor Adaptation

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A Method to Test the Effect of Environmental Cues on Mating Behavior in Drosophila melanogaster

A Method to Test the Effect of Environmental Cues on Mating Behavior in Drosophila melanogaster

An individual's sexual drive is influenced by genotype, experience and environmental conditions. How these factors interact to modulate sexual behaviors ...

A Computational Method to Quantify Fly Circadian Activity

In most animals and plants, circadian clocks orchestrate behavioral and molecular processes and synchronize them to the daily light-dark cycle. ...

Application of MultiColor FlpOut Technique to Study High Resolution Single Cell Morphologies and Cell Interactions of Glia in Drosophila

Application of MultiColor FlpOut Technique to Study High Resolution Single Cell Morphologies and Cell Interactions of Glia in Drosophila

Cells display different morphologies and complex anatomical relationships. How do cells interact with their neighbors? Do the interactions differ between ...

An Automated Rapid Iterative Negative Geotaxis Assay for Analyzing Adult Climbing Behavior in a Drosophila Model of Neurodegeneration

An Automated Rapid Iterative Negative Geotaxis Assay for Analyzing Adult Climbing Behavior in a Drosophila Model of Neurodegeneration

Neurodegenerative diseases are frequently associated with a progressive loss of movement ability, reduced life span, and age-dependent neurodegeneration. ...

A Simple and Low-cost Assay for Measuring Ambulation in Mouse Models of Muscular Dystrophy

Measuring functional outcomes in the treatment of muscular dystrophy is an essential aspect of preclinical testing. The assessment of voluntary ambulation ...