This work was supported by NIH grants NIH34958 to I. E and NS061952 to J. C.

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No conflicts of interest declared.

In this protocol, we described procedures for measuring Drosophila locomotor activity rhythms, a reliable behavioral output of fly circadian clocks that is used as the standard readout of clock function. This assay has been used in large-scale screens for novel clock mutants (e.g. Konopka and Benzer 1971; Dubruille et al. 2009) and is continually used to dissect and understand clock function in vivo. It has also been used to study sleep wake cycle in flies, even though recent reports suggest that video digital analysis is much more reliable in quantifying sleep than using locomotor activity rhythms (Zimmerman et al. 2008). When using locomotor activity rhythms to analyze sleep, percentage of sleep in the daytime tend to be overestimated.
To ensure the success and reproducibility of this protocol, it is critical to assay flies that are similar in age, genetic background, and reared under the same conditions, as behavioral phenotypes in fruit flies such as circadian rhythmicity and sleep/rest activity are very sensitive to all these factors. When using multiple incubators for a single experiment, it is important to make sure all incubators are at the anticipated temperature since some circadian parameters may change as a function of temperature. One word of caution when considering purchasing incubators for working with flies; not all are created equal. While we hesitate to recommend any particular unit there are many options. A good resource for finding companies that sell incubators for Drosophila work is provided at &lt;www.flybase.org&gt;. Some companies even sell "Drosophila circadian" incubators, wherein additional features are available, such as already wired for the Trikinetics system and temperature ramping (e.g., Tritech). Important features include the ability for diurnal light control and good temperature control in the physiological range of Drosophila (~15-30&deg;C). Prices and sizes of incubators vary a lot but with the newer activity monitors from Trikinetics, even small incubators can accommodate quite a number of these devices. Also, although incubators with humidity control can be used, this added feature is not necessary as long as you place a small pan with water to provide humidity (50-70% is fine). Finally, although we routinely use FaasX and Insomniac for data analysis in this protocol, there are alternative programs and softwares available (Rosato and Kyriacou 2006), e.g. ClockLab (ActiMetrics), Brandeis Rhythm Package (D. Wheeler, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston), and MAZ (Zordan et al. 2007).

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		<div>
		<table border="1">
		<thead>
		<tr>
		<th>Material Name</th>
		<th>Type</th>
		<th>Company</th>
		<th>Catalogue Number</th>
		<th>Comment</th>
		</tr>
		</thead>
		<tbody>
		
<tr>
<td>Drosophila activity monitor (DAM)</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>Trikinetics Inc.; Waltham, MA</td>
<td>DAM2 or DAM5</td>
<td>DAM2 monitors are more compact, and more can fit into a single incubator</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Power supply interface unit (for DAM system)</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>Trikinetics Inc.; Waltham, MA</td>
<td>PSIU9</td>
<td>Includes PS9-1 AC Power Supply</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Light controller</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>Trikinetics Inc.; Waltham, MA</td>
<td>LC6</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<tr>
<td>Pyrex glass tubes</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>Trikinetics Inc.; Waltham, MA</td>
<td>PGT5, PGT7, and PGT10</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<tr>
<td>Plastic activity tube caps</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>Trikinetics Inc.; Waltham, MA</td>
<td>CAP5</td>
<td>Yarn can be used instead of plastic caps.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>DAM System data collection software</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>Trikinetics Inc.; Waltham, MA</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>Versions available for both Mac and PC</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>FaasX software</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>M. Boudinot and F. Rouyer, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>Only for Mac</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Insomniac 2.0 software</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>Leslie Ashmore, Department of Pharmacology &amp; Chemical Biology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>Runs on Matlab. Can be used on both PC and Macintosh.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Environmental incubator with temperature and diurnal control, e.g. Percival incubator</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>Percival Scientific, Inc.</td>
<td>I-30BLL</td>
<td>Interior space dimension:
Width: 65cm;
Height: 86cm;
Depth: 55cm</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Environmental incubator with temperature and diurnal control, e.g. DigiTherm Heating/Cooling Incubator with Circadian Timed Lighting and Timed Temperature</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>Tritech Research, Inc.</td>
<td>05DT2CIRC001</td>
<td>Interior space dimension:
Width: 36m;
Height: 56m;
Depth: 28cm</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>APC Smart-UPS 2200VA 120V (Emergency power backup unit)</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>APC</td>
<td>SU2200NET</td>
<td>Output Power Capacity of 1600 Watts</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Sucrose</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>Sigma</td>
<td>S7903</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<tr>
<td>Bacto Agar</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>Becton Dickinson</td>
<td>214010</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<tr>
<td>TissuePrep Paraffin pellets</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>Fisher Scientific</td>
<td>T565</td>
<td>Melting point 56&deg;C-57&deg;C</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Block heater </td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>VWR</td>
<td>12621-014</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>		</tbody>
		</table>
		</div>

assaying locomotor activity to study circadian rhythms and sleep parameters in drosophila

Most life forms exhibit daily rhythms in cellular, physiological and behavioral phenomena that are driven by endogenous circadian (&equiv;24 hr) pacemakers or clocks. Malfunctions in the human circadian system are associated with numerous diseases or disorders. Much progress towards our understanding of the mechanisms underlying circadian rhythms has emerged from genetic screens whereby an easily measured behavioral rhythm is used as a read-out of clock function. Studies using Drosophila have made seminal contributions to our understanding of the cellular and biochemical bases underlying circadian rhythms. The standard circadian behavioral read-out measured in Drosophila is locomotor activity. In general, the monitoring system involves specially designed devices that can measure the locomotor movement of Drosophila. These devices are housed in environmentally controlled incubators located in a darkroom and are based on using the interruption of a beam of infrared light to record the locomotor activity of individual flies contained inside small tubes. When measured over many days, Drosophila exhibit daily cycles of activity and inactivity, a behavioral rhythm that is governed by the animal's endogenous circadian system. The overall procedure has been simplified with the advent of commercially available locomotor activity monitoring devices and the development of software programs for data analysis. We use the system from Trikinetics Inc., which is the procedure described here and is currently the most popular system used worldwide. More recently, the same monitoring devices have been used to study sleep behavior in Drosophila. Because the daily wake-sleep cycles of many flies can be measured simultaneously and only 1 to 2 weeks worth of continuous locomotor activity data is usually sufficient, this system is ideal for large-scale screens to identify Drosophila manifesting altered circadian or sleep properties.

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Assaying Locomotor Activity to Study Circadian Rhythms and Sleep Parameters in Drosophila

We describe procedures for recording daily locomotor activity rhythms of Drosophila and subsequent data analysis. Locomotor activity rhythms are a reliable behavioral output of animal circadian clocks and are used as the standard readout of clock function when studying circadian mutants or examining how the environment regulates the circadian system.

Assaying Locomotor Activity to Study Circadian Rhythms and Sleep Parameters in Drosophila

Most life forms exhibit daily rhythms in cellular, physiological and behavioral phenomena that are driven by endogenous circadian (&equiv;24 hr) ...

assaying-locomotor-activity-to-study-circadian-rhythms-sleep

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46.2K Views.  Rutgers University. We describe procedures for recording daily locomotor activity rhythms of Drosophila and subsequent data analysis. Locomotor activity rhythms are a reliable behavioral output of animal circadian clocks and are used as the standard readout of clock function when studying circadian mutants or examining how the environment regulates the circadian system.