We would like to thank to Instituto Gulbenkian de Ci&#234;ncia (IGC) for providing us access to part of the experimental equipment described in this protocol. This work was supported by Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), LISBOA-01-0145-FEDER-007660, PTDC/NEU- NMC/2459/2014, IF/00697/2014 and&#160;La Caixa&#160;HR17-00595 to PMD and by an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (FT170100259) to CKM.

1. Preparation of the sucrose-yeast (SY) diets
<ol>
	<li>Weigh all the dry ingredients (agar, yeast, sucrose) for the macronutrient balancing and L3 rearing diets. The amounts in grams for each of the ingredients needed to prepare 1 L of food are indicated in Figure 1B. 
	NOTE: Take into account that approximately 13 mL of food is needed to fill a 60-mm Petri dish.</li>
	<li>Dissolve all ingredients in sterile distilled water (use approximately 50% of the total volume of water needed ...

<ol>
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K. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=When+does+diet+matter?+The+roles+of+larval+and+adult+nutrition+in+regulating+adult+size+traits+in+Drosophila+melanogaster.">When does diet matter? The roles of larval and adult nutrition in regulating adult size traits in Drosophila melanogaster.</a> Journal of Insect Physiology. , 104051 (2020).</li><li>Hamada, F. N., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=An+internal+thermal+sensor+controlling+temperature+preference+in+Drosophila.">An internal thermal sensor controlling temperature preference in Drosophila.</a> Nature. 454 (7201), 217-220 (2008).</li><li>Pfeiffer, B. D., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Tools+for+neuroanatomy+and+neurogenetics+in+Drosophila.">Tools for neuroanatomy and neurogenetics in Drosophila.</a> Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 105 (28), 9715-9720 (2008).</li><li>Jenett, A., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=A+GAL4-driver+line+resource+for+Drosophila+neurobiology.">A GAL4-driver line resource for Drosophila neurobiology.</a> Cell Reports. 2 (4), 991-1001 (2012).</li><li>Kitamoto, T. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Conditional+modification+of+behavior+in+Drosophila+by+targeted+expression+of+a+temperature-sensitive+shibire+allele+in+defined+neurons.">Conditional modification of behavior in Drosophila by targeted expression of a temperature-sensitive shibire allele in defined neurons.</a> Journal of Neurobiology. 47 (2), 81-92 (2001).</li><li>Brand, A. H., Perrimon, N. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Targeted+gene+expression+as+a+means+of+altering+cell+fates+and+generating+dominant+phenotypes.">Targeted gene expression as a means of altering cell fates and generating dominant phenotypes.</a> Development. 118 (2), 401-415 (1993).</li><li>Shirangi, T. R., Stern, D. L., Truman, J. W. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Motor+control+of+Drosophila+courtship+song.">Motor control of Drosophila courtship song.</a> Cell Reports. 5 (3), 678-686 (2013).</li><li>Mirth, C. M. J. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Food+intake+and+food+choice+are+altered+by+the+developmental+transition+at+critical+weight+in+Drosophila+melanogaster.">Food intake and food choice are altered by the developmental transition at critical weight in Drosophila melanogaster.</a> Animal Behaviour. 126, 195-208 (2017).</li><li>Simpson, S. J., Raubenheimer, D. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Obesity:+the+protein+leverage+hypothesis.">Obesity: the protein leverage hypothesis.</a> Obesity Reviews. 6 (2), 133-142 (2005).</li><li>Raubenheimer, D., Simpson, S. J. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Integrative+models+of+nutrient+balancing:+application+to+insects+and+vertebrates.">Integrative models of nutrient balancing: application to insects and vertebrates.</a> Nutrition Research Reviews. 10 (1), 151-179 (1997).</li><li>Li, H. H., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=A+GAL4+driver+resource+for+developmental+and+behavioral+studies+on+the+larval+CNS+of+Drosophila.">A GAL4 driver resource for developmental and behavioral studies on the larval CNS of Drosophila.</a> Cell Reports. 8 (3), 897-908 (2014).</li><li>Bhatt, P. K., Neckameyer, W. 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With this protocol, one could test the ability of larvae under thermogenetic-activation of specific neuronal populations to regulate the intake levels of protein and carbohydrates, two major macronutrients, when exposed to diets of different P:C composition. This method was tested in the context of a larval preliminary screening aiming to identify neuronal populations associated with the control of food intake across diets of different macronutrient quality. This work also contributes to demonstrating that Drosophila...

An erratum was issued for:&#160;<a href="https://www.jove.com/t/61323/quantification-macronutrients-intake-thermogenetic-neuronal-screen">Quantification of Macronutrients Intake in a Thermogenetic Neuronal Screen using Drosophila Larvae</a>. A figure was updated.
Figure 1&#160;was updated from:
<img alt="Figure 1" class="xfigimg" src="/files/ftp_upload/61323/61323fig1.jpg" /> 
Figure 1: The sucrose-yeast (SY) diets used in our protocol. (A) The blue dots represent the isocaloric (248 calories/L) macronutrient balancing diets used in the feeding assay, which differ in the protein to carbohydrate (P:C) ratios: 1:1, 1:4 and 1:16. The beige dot represents the diet used to rear the experimental third-instar larvae (L3), which contained a P:C ratio of 1:2 and a caloric density of 495 calories/L. (B) Detailed composition and nutritional information of the sucrose-yeast (SY) based diets. The components are the same for all the diets: agar, sucrose and yeast. The amount in grams of the components needed to prepare 1 L of diet is shown. Note that 1% (v/v) of blue dye must be added to the macronutrient balancing diets and to the L3 rearing diet nipagin and propionic acid solutions must be added to a final concentration (v/v) of 3% and 0.3%, respectively. <a href="https://www.jove.com/files/ftp_upload/61323/61323fig1large.jpg" target="_blank">Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.</a>
to:
<img alt="Figure 1" class="xfigimg" src="/files/ftp_upload/61323/61323fig1v2.jpg" /> 
Figure 1: The sucrose-yeast (SY) diets used in our protocol. (A) The blue dots represent the isocaloric (248 calories/L) macronutrient balancing diets used in the feeding assay, which differ in the protein to carbohydrate (P:C) ratios: 1:1, 1:4 and 1:16. The beige dot represents the diet used to rear the experimental third-instar larvae (L3), which contained a P:C ratio of 1:2 and a caloric density of 495 calories/L. (B) Detailed composition and nutritional information of the sucrose-yeast (SY) based diets. The components are the same for all the diets: agar, sucrose and yeast. The amount in grams of the components needed to prepare 1 L of diet is shown. Note that 1% (v/v) of blue dye must be added to the macronutrient balancing diets and to the L3 rearing diet nipagin and propionic acid solutions must be added to a final concentration (v/v) of 3% and 0.3%, respectively. <a href="https://www.jove.com/files/ftp_upload/61323/61323fig1v2large.jpg" target="_blank">Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.</a>

An erratum was issued for:&#160;<a href="https://www.jove.com/t/61323/quantification-macronutrients-intake-thermogenetic-neuronal-screen">Quantification of Macronutrients Intake in a Thermogenetic Neuronal Screen using Drosophila Larvae</a>. A figure was updated.

Erratum: Quantification of Macronutrients Intake in a Thermogenetic Neuronal Screen using Drosophila Larvae

All animals depend on a balanced diet to acquire the necessary amounts of nutrients for survival, growth, and reproduction1. The choice of what and how much to eat is influenced by a multitude of interacting factors related to the internal state of the animal, like the satiety level, and environmental conditions, such as food quality2,3,4,5. Protein and carbohydrates are two major macronutrients and its balanced intake is essential to sustain animals&#8217; physiological processes. Therefore, the understanding of the neural mechanisms controlling feeding behaviors and sustaining a balanced intake of these macronutrients is extremely relevant. This is because life history traits like lifespan, fecundity, and metabolic health are directly affected by the levels of protein intake intake6,7,8,9,10.
The use of simpler more tractable organisms that exhibit evolutionarily conserved feeding habits with complex animals, including mammals, is essential to this type of studies. Importantly, these simpler animal models provide a good opportunity to dissect complex biological questions in a costly, ethically and technically more effective context. In the last decades, Drosophila, with its powerful genetic toolkit, intricate and stereotypical behavior and conserved architecture of peripheral and nutrient-sensing mechanisms with mammals, has been a fruitful model for behavioral neurobiologists11. Ultimately, the hope is that by understanding how food intake is regulated in this animal, with a simpler nervous system, we can then begin to untangle neuronal malfunctions underlying human eating disorders.
The study of neuronal substrates for feeding behaviors is deeply dependent on being able to simultaneously measure animals&#8217; food intake while manipulating their neuronal activity. Due to the minimal quantities of food ingested, quantifying the amount of food eaten by flies is extremely challenging, and all methods currently available present significant limitations. Thus, the gold standard is to use a combination of complementary methodologies12. Adult flies have been historically favored as a genetic and behavioral model. Nevertheless, Drosophila larvae, also offer opportunities to investigate neuronal substrates encoding feeding behavior. The larval central nervous system (CNS), with around 12,000 neurons, is significantly less complex than that of the adult, which contains approximately 150,000 neurons. This lower complexity is not only numerical but also functional, since larval behaviors rely on simpler locomotive functions and sensory systems. Despite the apparent simplicity of their nervous systems, larvae still exhibit complete feeding behaviors, and some methods to quantify food ingestion in Drosophila larvae have been described5,13,14,15. By pairing with manipulations of neuronal activity, Drosophila larvae can constitute a highly tractable model for understanding the neural regulation of food intake.
Provided here is a detailed protocol to quantify food intake in larvae exposed to diets of different macronutrient quality. The diets, so-called macronutrient balancing diets, differed in the protein and carbohydrates contents, specifically with respect to the protein to carbohydrate (P:C) ratios: 1:1 (protein-rich diet), 1:4 (intermediate diet), and 1:16 (protein-poor diet), as shown in Figure 1A. Briefly, a quantitative no-choice feeding assay was established using these three isocaloric sucrose-yeast (SY)-based diets dyed with a blue food dye. Because yeast extract and sucrose were used as protein and carbohydrate sources, and both contain carbohydrates, variation in the P:C ratios was obtained by changing the balance of these two components, as previously described16 and as indicated in Figure 1B. A schematic overview of the protocol, showing the main experimental steps, is available in Figure 2.
This protocol was established with the aim of investigating the role of specific neuronal populations on the regulation of larval feeding levels in diets of different P:C ratios and in the context of a thermogenetic neuronal screen. A well-characterized neurogenetic tool was used from the Transient Receptor Potential (TRP) family: Drosophila Transient Receptor Potential channel (dTRPA1), which is a temperature and voltage-gated cation channel, allowing the firing of action potentials when ambient temperatures rise above 25 &#730;C17. To express the dTRPA1 transgene, we took advantage of the Gal4 lines based on cis-regulatory regions from the Drosophila genome, established in the Rubin laboratory, in the context of the FlyLight project at Janelia Research Campus18,19.
Although the protocol, here described, has been established in the context of an activation screen, it can be easily adapted by the experimenter to other specific needs or interests, namely to perform a suppression screen using the temperature sensitive neuronal silencer ShibireTS20, in alternative to dTRPA1. This and other adaptions are discussed in the protocol and discussion sections.

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width:2112px;" width="2113">
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	<tbody>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:323px;">1.5 mL microtubes</td>
			<td style="width:271px;">Sarstedt AG &#38; Co.</td>
			<td style="width:247px;">72.690.001</td>
			<td style="width:1272px;"></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:323px;">10xPBS</td>
			<td style="width:271px;">Nytech</td>
			<td style="width:247px;">MB18201</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:323px;">2.0 mL microtubes</td>
			<td style="width:271px;">Sarstedt AG &#38; Co.</td>
			<td style="width:247px;">72.695.500</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:323px;">60 mm petri dishes</td>
			<td style="width:271px;">Greiner Bio-one, Austria</td>
			<td style="width:247px;">628161</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:323px;">96 well microplates</td>
			<td style="width:271px;">Santa Cruz Biotechnology</td>
			<td style="width:247px;">SC-204453</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:323px;">Agar</td>
			<td style="width:271px;">Pr&#243;-vida, Portugal</td>
			<td style="width:247px;"></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:323px;">Bench cooler</td>
			<td style="width:271px;">Nalgene, USA</td>
			<td style="width:247px;">Labtop Cooler 5115-0032</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:323px;">Blue food dye</td>
			<td style="width:271px;">Rayner, Billingshurst, UK</td>
			<td style="width:247px;"></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:323px;">Cell disruption media</td>
			<td style="width:271px;">Scientific Industries, Inc.</td>
			<td style="width:247px;">888-850-6208</td>
			<td>(0.5 mm glass beads)</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:323px;">Dish weight boats</td>
			<td style="width:271px;">Santa Cruz Biotechnology</td>
			<td style="width:247px;">SC-201606</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="42">
			<td height="42" style="height:42px;width:323px;">Embryo collection cage for 60 mm petri dishes</td>
			<td style="width:271px;">Flystuff, Scientific Laboratory Supplies, UK</td>
			<td style="width:247px;">FLY1212 (59-100)</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;">Featherweight forceps</td>
			<td style="width:271px;">BioQuip Products, USA</td>
			<td style="width:247px;">4750</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:323px;">Fly food for stocks maintenance</td>
			<td style="width:271px;"></td>
			<td style="width:247px;"></td>
			<td>1 L food contains: 10 g Agar, 100 g Yeast Extract, 50 g Sucrose, 30 mL Nipagin, 3 mL propionic acid</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:323px;">Forceps #5</td>
			<td style="width:271px;">Dumont</td>
			<td style="width:247px;">0108-5-PS</td>
			<td>Standard tips, INOX, 11cm</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:323px;">Incubator</td>
			<td style="width:271px;">LMS Ltd, UK</td>
			<td style="width:247px;">Series 2, Model 230</td>
			<td>For thermogenetic feeding assay (30&#8728;C)</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:323px;">Incubator</td>
			<td style="width:271px;">Percival Scientific, USA</td>
			<td style="width:247px;">DR36NL</td>
			<td>To stage larvae (19&#8728;C)</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:323px;">Janelia lines</td>
			<td style="width:271px;">Janelia Research Campus</td>
			<td style="width:247px;"></td>
			<td>Detailed information in Table 2</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:323px;">Macronutrient balancing diets</td>
			<td style="width:271px;"></td>
			<td style="width:247px;"></td>
			<td>Composition and nutritional information in Figure 1</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:323px;">Methanol</td>
			<td style="width:271px;">VWR</td>
			<td style="width:247px;">CAS number: 67-56-1</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:323px;">Nipagin (Methyl 4-hydroxybenzoate)</td>
			<td style="width:271px;">Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td style="width:247px;">H5501</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:323px;">Nitrile gloves</td>
			<td style="width:271px;">VWR, USA</td>
			<td style="width:247px;"></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="42">
			<td height="42" style="height:42px;width:323px;">Refrigerated centrifuge</td>
			<td style="width:271px;">Eppendorf, Germany</td>
			<td style="width:247px;">5804 R / Serial number: 5805CI364293</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:323px;">Rubin Gal4 ines</td>
			<td style="width:271px;">Janelia Research Campus</td>
			<td style="width:247px;"></td>
			<td>Stoks available at Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:323px;">ShibireTS UAS line</td>
			<td style="width:271px;">Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center</td>
			<td style="width:247px;">BDSC number: 66600</td>
			<td>Provided by Carlos Ribeiro Group</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:323px;">Soft brushes</td>
			<td style="width:271px;"></td>
			<td style="width:247px;"></td>
			<td>For sorting anaesthetised fruit flies</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:323px;">Spectrophotometer plate reader</td>
			<td style="width:271px;">Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td style="width:247px;">Multiskan Go 51119300</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:323px;">Stereo microscope</td>
			<td style="width:271px;">Nikon</td>
			<td style="width:247px;">1016625</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:323px;">Sucrose</td>
			<td style="width:271px;">Sidul, Portugal</td>
			<td style="width:247px;"></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:323px;">Third-instar larvae (L3) rearing diet</td>
			<td style="width:271px;"></td>
			<td style="width:247px;"></td>
			<td>Composition and nutritional information in Figure 1</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:323px;">Timer</td>
			<td style="width:271px;"></td>
			<td style="width:247px;"></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:323px;">Tissue lyzer / bead beater</td>
			<td style="width:271px;">MP Biomedicals, USA</td>
			<td style="width:247px;">FastPrep-24 6004500</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:323px;">TRPA1 UAS line</td>
			<td style="width:271px;">Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center</td>
			<td style="width:247px;">BDSC number: 26264</td>
			<td>Expresses TrpA1 under UAS control; may be used to activate neurons experimentally at 25 &#8728;C</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:323px;">Water bath</td>
			<td style="width:271px;">Sheldon Manufacturing Inc., USA</td>
			<td style="width:247px;">W20M-2 / 03068308 / 9021195</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:323px;">Yeast extract</td>
			<td style="width:271px;">Pr&#243;-vida, Portugal</td>
			<td style="width:247px;"></td>
			<td>51% Protein, 15% Carbohydrate</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

quantification of macronutrients intake in a thermogenetic neuronal screen using drosophila larvae

Foraging and feeding behaviors allow animals to access sources of energy and nutrients essential for their development, health, and fitness. Investigating the neuronal regulation of these behaviors is essential for the understanding of the physiological and molecular mechanisms underlying nutritional homeostasis. The use of genetically tractable animal models such as worms, flies, and fish greatly facilitates these types of studies. In the last decade, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has been used as a powerful animal model by neurobiologists investigating the neuronal control of feeding and foraging behaviors. While undoubtedly valuable, most studies examine adult flies. Here, we describe a protocol that takes advantage of the simpler larval nervous system to investigate neuronal substrates controlling feeding behaviors when larvae are exposed to diets differing in their protein and carbohydrates content. Our methods are based on a quantitative colorimetric no-choice feeding assay, performed in the context of a neuronal thermogenetic-activation screen. As a read-out, the amount of food eaten by larvae over a 1 h interval was used when exposed to one of the three dye-labeled diets that differ in their protein to carbohydrates (P:C) ratios. The efficacy of this protocol is demonstrated in the context of a neurogenetic screen in larval Drosophila, by identifying candidate neuronal populations regulating the amount of food eaten in diets of different macronutrient quality. We were also able to classify and group the genotypes tested into phenotypic classes. Besides a brief review of the currently available methods in the literature, the advantages and limitations of these methods are discussed and, also, some suggestions are provided about how this protocol might be adapted to other specific experiments.

Drosophila larvae regulate their protein intake at the cost of ingesting excess carbohydrates23 (schematic plot in Figure 2E). Actually, this prioritization of protein intake has been observed in many other animals and is called the protein leveraging24,25.
Taking advantage of this robust feeding behavioral response, a behavior-based screen was designed aiming to identify n...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Quantification of Macronutrients Intake in a Thermogenetic Neuronal Screen using Drosophila Larvae at JoVE.com

Quantification of Macronutrients Intake in a Thermogenetic Neuronal Screen using Drosophila Larvae

Described here is a protocol that enables the colorimetric quantification of the amount of food eaten within a defined interval of time by Drosophila melanogaster larvae exposed to diets of different macronutrient quality. These assays are conducted in the context of a neuronal thermogenetic screen.

Quantification of Macronutrients Intake in a Thermogenetic Neuronal Screen using Drosophila Larvae

Foraging and feeding behaviors allow animals to access sources of energy and nutrients essential for their development, health, and fitness. Investigating ...

Our protocol enables identification of larval neuronal populations encoding nutritional choices related to the control of the intake levels of two major macronutrients, proteins and carbohydrates. The simplicity and relatively high throughput of our method allows the quantification of food intake for several genotypes exposed to different nutritional conditions. To genetically cross the parental lines, set up 60 millimeter embryo collection cages with L3 rearing diet plates supplemented with some active yeast paste.Transfer the adult TripA1 female virgins and Janelia GAL4 males aged five to eight days to the embryo collection cages and allow the mating to occur for 24 to 48 hours at 25 degrees Celsius with 60%humidity and a 12, 12 light dark cycle. After the mating period, transfer the mated adult flies to fresh L3 rearing diet plates and allow the egg-laying to occur for three to four hours at 25 degrees Celsius. Make sure that all plates are labeled with the genotype and date of the egg lay.When the egg-laying period is finished, remove the plates from the cages and estimate the number of eggs per plate by counting the number of embryos in one quarter of the plate. Keep the larval density to a maximum of 200 embryos per plate and cover the plates with plastic lids. Incubate the L3 rearing plates at 18 degrees Celsius, 60%humidity, and a 12, 12 light dark cycle for nine days.After the incubation, collect three groups of 10 L3 from each of the genotypes to be tested, as well as one group of 10 L3 for the zero dye food control. Use number five or featherweight forceps performing the larvae collection as gently as possible. Transfer the collected larvae to plastic dish weight boats containing one milliliter of water.Set up a 30 degree Celsius incubator and keep humidity levels high by adding a tray filled with water to avoid larval dehydration during the assay. Equilibrate the temperature of the assay plates by warming them to 30 degrees Celsius prior to starting. Make sure that all plates are labeled with the genotype and protein to carbohydrate ratio of the diet.Heat shock the experimental larvae for two minutes by directly transferring the plastic boats containing the animals to a water bath at 37 degrees Celsius. Set the required number of timers for one hour, then carefully drain the water from the plastic boats and transfer the L3 groups from the boats to the center of the asset plates. Cover the plates and start the timer.Allow the larvae to feed for one hour at 30 degrees Celsius in the dark. Stop the feeding assay by transferring the plates to an ice bath. Prepare two milliliter microtubes for each L3 group tested containing enough 0.5 millimeter glass beads to fill the bottom portion of the microtube and 300 microliters of ice cold methanol.Use a bench cooler to keep the microtubes cold. Carefully recover the L3 groups from the feeding assay plates and transfer them to the lids of the plates with some water. Rinse the larvae to remove food debris from their bodies, taking care to avoid any injuries.Transfer the larvae to the prepared microtubes and lyse them with a tissue lyser to extract the food dye from the guts. Transfer the extracts to clean 1.5 milliliter microtubes by directly inverting the two milliliter microtubes onto the new tubes. Do so gently so that most of the glass beads stay at the bottom of the two milliliter tube.Clear the cellular debris by centrifuging the extracts at a maximum speed and four degrees Celsius for 10 minutes, then transfer the supernatants to clean 1.5 milliliter tubes. To perform calorimetric quantification of food consumption, prepare standard solutions of blue dye by serially diluting it one to two in methanol. Transfer 100 microliters of the experimental samples, standards, and blank to the wells of a 96 well microplate and measure the absorbance at 600 nanometers.This protocol was used to quantify the relative amounts of macronutrients consumed for animals under thermogenetic activation of specific neuronal populations in the larval nervous system. Activating distinct of populations of neurons significantly affected macronutrient balancing in third-instar larvae. The feeding pattern observed for the control line, here indicated in gray color, show an expected decrease of food intake in higher protein to carbohydrate ratio diets, demonstrating the effectiveness of the method.The five phenotypic classes that were established for the experimental animals were eat a lot and compensate for protein dilution by overeating, eat a lot, but do not compensate, eat little, but compensate, eat little and do not compensate, and eat aberrantly. For each of these phenotypic classes and genotypes, the GFP patterns in the central nervous systems of third-instar larvae are shown. When attempting this protocol, it is important to generate developmentally synchronized early third-instar larvae in order to minimize the variation associated to animal behavior.Following this protocol, radio labeling of the foods would allow the confirmation and further dissection of the hits found using this methods.

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JoVE Journal

Neuroscience

3.5K vues.  Monash University. Our protocol enables identification of larval neuronal populations encoding nutritional choices related to the control of the intake levels of two major macronutrients, proteins and carbohydrates. The simplicity and relatively high throughput of our method allows the quantification of food intake for several genotypes exposed to different nutritional conditions. To genetically cross the parental lines, set up 60 millimeter embryo collection cages with L3 rearing diet plates supplemented with ...