Institute of Neuroscience, Soochow University.
Institute of Neuroscience, Soochow University; Department of Neurology and Clinical Research Center of Neurological Disease, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University;
J Vis Exp. 2023 Feb 24(192). doi: 10.3791/65092.
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.
黑腹果蝇是研究各种疾病的理想模式生物，因为它拥有丰富的高级遗传操作技术和多样化的行为特征。在动物模型中识别行为缺陷是衡量疾病严重程度的重要指标，例如在神经退行性疾病中，患者通常会出现运动功能障碍。然而，随着各种系统的出现，例如可以追踪和评估果蝇模型中运动缺陷的药物处理或转基因个体，仍然缺乏一种经济实惠且用户友好的系统，可以从多个角度进行精确评估。这里开发了一种基于 AnimalTracker 应用程序编程接口 (API) 的方法，该方法与 Fiji 图像处理程序兼容，可从记录的视频中系统地评估成年和幼虫个体的运动活动，从而可以分析它们的跟踪行为。该方法仅需要高清摄像机和计算机外围硬件集成即可进行记录和分析行为，因此是筛选具有转基因或环境行为缺陷的果蝇模型的一种经济有效的方法。使用药物处理的果蝇进行行为测试的示例表明，该技术如何以高度可重复的方式检测成年果蝇和幼虫的行为变化。
