Dataset Information

Swing Boat: Inducing and Recording Locomotor Activity in a Drosophila melanogaster Model of Alzheimer's Disease.

ABSTRACT: Recent studies indicate that physical activity can slow down progression of neurodegeneration in humans. To date, automated ways to induce activity have been predominantly described in rodent models. To study the impact of activity on behavior and survival in adult Drosophila melanogaster, we aimed to develop a rotating tube device "swing boat" which is capable of monitoring activity and sleep patterns as well as survival rates of flies. For the purpose of a first application, we tested our device on a transgenic fly model of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Activity of flies was recorded in a climate chamber using the Drosophila Activity Monitoring (DAM) System connected to data acquisition software. Locomotor activity was induced by a rotating tube device "swing boat" by repetitively tilting the tubes for 30 min per day. A non-exercising group of flies was used as control and activity and sleep patterns were obtained. The GAL4-/UAS system was used to drive pan-neuronal expression of human A?42 in flies. Immunohistochemical stainings for A?42 were performed on paraffin sections of adult fly brains. Daily rotation of the fly tubes evoked a pronounced peak of activity during the 30 min exercise period. Pan-neuronal expression of human A?42 in flies caused abnormalities in locomotor activity, reduction of life span and elevated sleep fragmentation in comparison to wild type flies. Furthermore, the formation of amyloid accumulations was observed in the adult fly brain. Gently induced activity over 12 days did not evoke prominent effects in wild type flies but resulted in prolongation of median survival time by 7 days (32.6%) in A?42-expressing flies. Additionally, restoration of abnormally decreased night time sleep (10%) and reduced sleep fragmentation (28%) were observed compared to non-exercising A?42-expressing flies. On a structural level no prominent effects regarding prevalence of amyloid aggregations and A?42 RNA expression were detected following activity induction. The rotating tube device successfully induced activity in flies shown by quantitative activity analysis. Our setup enabled quantitative analysis of activity and sleep patterns as well as of survival rates. Induced activity in a Drosophila model of Alzheimer's disease improved survival and ameliorated sleep phenotypes.

SUBMITTER: Berlandi J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5582087 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Swing Boat: Inducing and Recording Locomotor Activity in a <i>Drosophila melanogaster</i> Model of Alzheimer's Disease.

Berlandi Johannes J Lin Fang-Ju FJ Ambrée Oliver O Rieger Dirk D Paulus Werner W Jeibmann Astrid A

Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience 20170830

Recent studies indicate that physical activity can slow down progression of neurodegeneration in humans. To date, automated ways to induce activity have been predominantly described in rodent models. To study the impact of activity on behavior and survival in adult <i>Drosophila melanogaster</i>, we aimed to develop a rotating tube device "swing boat" which is capable of monitoring activity and sleep patterns as well as survival rates of flies. For the purpose of a first application, we tested o ...[more]

PMID: 28912696

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Project description:Drosophila melanogaster can be used to identify genes with novel functional roles in neuronal plasticity induced by repeated consumption of addictive drugs. Behavioral sensitization is a relatively simple behavioral output of plastic changes that occur in the brain after repeated exposures to drugs of abuse. The development of screening procedures for genes that control behavioral sensitization has stalled due to a lack of high-throughput behavioral tests that can be used in genetically tractable organism, such as Drosophila. We have developed a new behavioral test, FlyBong, which combines delivery of volatilized cocaine (vCOC) to individually housed flies with objective quantification of their locomotor activity. There are two main advantages of FlyBong: it is high-throughput and it allows for comparisons of locomotor activity of individual flies before and after single or multiple exposures. At the population level, exposure to vCOC leads to transient and concentration-dependent increase in locomotor activity, representing sensitivity to an acute dose. A second exposure leads to further increase in locomotion, representing locomotor sensitization. We validate FlyBong by showing that locomotor sensitization at either the population or individual level is absent in the mutants for circadian genes period (per), Clock (Clk), and cycle (cyc). The locomotor sensitization that is present in timeless (tim) and pigment dispersing factor (pdf) mutant flies is in large part not cocaine specific, but derived from increased sensitivity to warm air. Circadian genes are not only integral part of the neural mechanism that is required for development of locomotor sensitization, but in addition, they modulate the intensity of locomotor sensitization as a function of the time of day. Motor-activating effects of cocaine are sexually dimorphic and require a functional dopaminergic transporter. FlyBong is a new and improved method for inducing and measuring locomotor sensitization to cocaine in individual Drosophila. Because of its high-throughput nature, FlyBong can be used in genetic screens or in selection experiments aimed at the unbiased identification of functional genes involved in acute or chronic effects of volatilized psychoactive substances.

Dataset Information

Swing Boat: Inducing and Recording Locomotor Activity in a Drosophila melanogaster Model of Alzheimer's Disease.

Publications

Swing Boat: Inducing and Recording Locomotor Activity in a <i>Drosophila melanogaster</i> Model of Alzheimer's Disease.

Similar Datasets

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