Name: a low-cost method for analyzing seizure-like activity and movement in drosophila
Uploaded: 2014-02-19T15:30:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about A Low-cost Method for Analyzing Seizure-like Activity and Movement in Drosophila at JoVE.com

The authors also wish to express thanks to Kris Burner, Stephen McKinney, Laura Tobin, Jenny Gilbreath, Ashley Olley, Megan Hoffer, and Megan Hyde for their work in fine-tuning this assay.

1. Preparation of Individual Flies for Locomotion Assay
<ol>
	<li>Transfer flies by gently tapping into individual empty vials and cap the vials with a cotton plug. Allow flies to sit undisturbed 20-30 min before observation. It is important to not anesthetize the flies within the hours prior to behavioral observation as previous studies have found anesthesia exposure can alter behavior as compared to unanesthetized flies14.</li>
	<li>Gently tap the fly out of the vial and place individual flies under a 5 cm...

<ol>
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When examining locomotor or movement patterns in Drosophila, it is useful to be able to extract information regarding the distance traveled, the velocity of movement and the pattern of movement. In order to extract this information, expensive equipment has traditionally been employed that is often prohibitive for smaller labs or labs that wish to use such assays sparingly4,8,9.
The assay described here can be used to determine the distance traveled (Figures 2</stron...

Given its short lifespan and the robust genetic tools available, Drosophila melanogaster is an excellent model system for investigating the etiology of various diseases and the underlying physiology of various biological processes. In many cases, it is advantageous to measure the effects that behavioral, genetic or pharmacological manipulations have on locomotion in these model organisms1,2.
There are a variety of methods that are commonly used for measuring fly movement in two-dimensions3-7. These systems can support the tracking of multiple flies simultaneously and can measure velocity, record path lengths and record the percentage of time a fly has spent moving. They have been used to study movement in a variety of contexts including the effects of drugs on locomotion and the sexual dimorphic nature of fly movement6-9. The major drawback of these systems is cost of the tracking system or the corresponding software and camera. In some cases, this can run in the thousands of dollars. Cost is a particular concern for a lab that would only need limited use of such a system, for example, quantifying locomotive patterns of a newly isolated mutant.
A simpler but less robust method is to use systems which record movement based on how many times a fly crosses an infrared light beam path that is placed in the middle of a closed tube10,11. While such systems can give valuable information on movement and sleep-wake cycles, they can over or under estimate movement because they fail to capture the actual path of the fly. For example, flies that exhibit considerable movement at the ends of the tube will register as low movement flies although additional high-resolution methods have been used to try and circumvent these limitations12.
Simpler and cheaper still are climbing devices that measure geotaxis, the upward movement of flies, through a single tube or a series of tubes2,13. While such systems are cheap and can easily identify geotaxis defects, they fail to capture many other aspects of movement that would be of interest to investigators.
For many labs, a low-cost robust analysis system that is simple to set-up and operate would be an advantageous tool for characterizing behavioral differences in D. melanogaster strains. Here we describe an assay that can be set-up for less than two hundred dollars and is able to give information about the path, velocity and duration of the fly&#39;s movement. To demonstrate the efficacy of the assay, we present data showing that it can be used to identify; 1) a locomotor defect in a Bang-sensitive (BS) mutant that is susceptible to seizures and 2) the ability of the drug metformin, which is commonly used to treat type II diabetes, to reduce the intensity of seizure-like activity (SLA) in two BS mutants.

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width:1117px;" width="1117">
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		<col />
		<col />
	</colgroup>
	<tbody>
		<tr height="68">
			<td height="68" style="height:68px;width:251px;">Name of the Reagent/Equipment</td>
			<td style="width:152px;">Company</td>
			<td style="width:169px;">Catalog Number/Model</td>
			<td style="width:545px;">Comments</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;">WebCam</td>
			<td>Logitech</td>
			<td>Pro900</td>
			<td>Any quality webcam will suffice.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;">HandiAVI time-lapse software</td>
			<td>Azcendant software</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Latest version can be found at http://www.azcendant.com/</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;">ImageJ</td>
			<td>NIH</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Latest version can be found at http://rsbweb.nih.gov/ij/download.html</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;">Multiracker Plug-In</td>
			<td>NIH</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Latest version can be found at http://rsbweb.nih.gov/ij/plugins/index.html</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;">Vortexer</td>
			<td>VWR</td>
			<td>Vortex Genie 2</td>
			<td>Most standard size vortexers such as the Vortex Genie 2 will suffice.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;">5cm petri dish cover</td>
			<td>LabM Limited</td>
			<td>D011</td>
			<td>Smaller or larger petri dish covers can be used for an arena in movement assay.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;">Light box</td>
			<td colspan="2">Built from scrap material.</td>
			<td>Illumination is used for the locomotion assay. Depending on the room lighting, it is possible to perform the assay without the light box.&#160;</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

a low-cost method for analyzing seizure-like activity and movement in drosophila

Video tracking systems have been used widely to analyze Drosophila melanogaster movement and detect various abnormalities in locomotive behavior. While these systems can provide a wealth of behavioral information, the cost and complexity of these systems can be prohibitive for many labs. We have developed a low-cost assay for measuring locomotive behavior and seizure movement in D. melanogaster. The system uses a web-cam to capture images that can be processed using a combination of inexpensive and free software to track the distance moved, the average velocity of movement and the duration of movement during a specified time-span. To demonstrate the utility of this system, we examined a group of D. melanogaster mutants, the Bang-sensitive (BS) paralytics, which are 3-10 times more susceptible to seizure-like activity (SLA) than wild type flies. Using this novel system, we were able to detect that the BS mutant bang senseless (bss) exhibits lower levels of exploratory locomotion in a novel environment than wild type flies. In addition, the system was used to identify that the drug metformin, which is commonly used to treat type II diabetes, reduces the intensity of SLA in the BS mutants.

The technique described here has been used previously to analyze differences in SLA in the Drosophila BS mutants1. The results presented here involve the BS strains easily shocked (eas), bang senseless (bss), and technical knockout (tko). The eas locus encodes an ethanolamine kinase involved in phosphatidyl ethanolamine synthesis15 and the tko locus encodes a mitochondrial riboprotein16. The bss muta...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about A Low-cost Method for Analyzing Seizure-like Activity and Movement in Drosophila at JoVE.com

A Low-cost Method for Analyzing Seizure-like Activity and Movement in Drosophila

Using a webcam and a combination of free and inexpensive software programs, locomotive patterns in Drosophila melanogaster can be analyzed to detect differences in the speed, distance, and time of various motor activities.

A Low-cost Method for Analyzing Seizure-like Activity and Movement in Drosophila

Video tracking systems have been used widely to analyze Drosophila melanogaster movement and detect various abnormalities in locomotive behavior. While ...

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