We're interested in developing disease models for diseases like ALS, FTD, and multisystem proteinopathy to understand their molecular pathologies. One model we use is the Drosophila eye system. The regularity and symmetrical pattern of the eye can be used to evaluate the effect of introducing mutations and gene expression changes.
Our protocol addresses a gap in ways of quantifying rough eye phenotypes, specifically, the gap created by manual ranking. Manual ranking is based on fusion, loss of ommatidia, and bristle organization. However, it can lead to bias.
Therefore, combining ilastik and Flynotyper creates for a more robust method for ranking abnormal eye phenotypes. Our protocol can be advantageous to manual ranking due to its robustness. Even non-trained laboratory members can perform successful quantification, whereas a more trained researcher is likely needed for manual ranking to avoid score-to-score differences between two different researchers.
Therefore, this protocol can save time and resources. Our findings advance research because this protocol allows for more accurate quantification of rough eye phenotypes, especially weak alterations in eye morphology, Due to bias when manually ranking, combining ilastik and Flynotyper will lead to more accurate scoring, and therefore, result in more accurate published results.
