Aging is a phenomenon that results in steady physiological deterioration in nearly all organisms in which it has been examined, leading to reduced physical performance and increased risk of disease. Individual aging is manifest at the population level as an increase in age-dependent mortality, which is often measured in the laboratory by observing lifespan in large cohorts of age-matched individuals. Experiments that seek to quantify the extent to which genetic or environmental manipulations impact lifespan in simple model organisms have been remarkably successful for understanding the aspects of aging that are conserved across taxa and for inspiring new strategies for extending lifespan and preventing age-associated disease in mammals.
The vinegar fly, Drosophila melanogaster, is an attractive model organism for studying the mechanisms of aging due to its relatively short lifespan, convenient husbandry, and facile genetics. However, demographic measures of aging, including age-specific survival and mortality, are extraordinarily susceptible to even minor variations in experimental design and environment, and the maintenance of strict laboratory practices for the duration of aging experiments is required. These considerations, together with the need to practice careful control of genetic background, are essential for generating robust measurements. Indeed, there are many notable controversies surrounding inference from longevity experiments in yeast, worms, flies and mice that have been traced to environmental or genetic artifacts1-4. In this protocol, we describe a set of procedures that have been optimized over many years of measuring longevity in Drosophila using laboratory vials. We also describe the use of the dLife software, which was developed by our laboratory and is available for download (http://sitemaker.umich.edu/pletcherlab/software). dLife accelerates throughput and promotes good practices by incorporating optimal experimental design, simplifying fly handling and data collection, and standardizing data analysis. We will also discuss the many potential pitfalls in the design, collection, and interpretation of lifespan data, and we provide steps to avoid these dangers.
19 Related JoVE Articles!
Determination of the Spontaneous Locomotor Activity in Drosophila melanogaster
Institutions: University of Connecticut Health Center.
has been used as an excellent model organism to study environmental and genetic manipulations that affect behavior. One such behavior is spontaneous locomotor activity. Here we describe our protocol that utilizes Drosophila
population monitors and a tracking system that allows continuous monitoring of the spontaneous locomotor activity of flies for several days at a time. This method is simple, reliable, and objective and can be used to examine the effects of aging, sex, changes in caloric content of food, addition of drugs, or genetic manipulations that mimic human diseases.
Neuroscience, Issue 86, Investigative Techniques, Life Sciences (General), Behavioral Sciences, Drosophila melanogaster, Fruit flies, Spontaneous physical activity, Mobility, Fly behavior, Locomotor Activity
Dyeing Insects for Behavioral Assays: the Mating Behavior of Anesthetized Drosophila
Institutions: University of Liverpool.
Mating experiments using Drosophila
have contributed greatly to the understanding of sexual selection and behavior. Experiments often require simple, easy and cheap methods to distinguish between individuals in a trial. A standard technique for this is CO2
anaesthesia and then labelling or wing clipping each fly. However, this is invasive and has been shown to affect behavior. Other techniques have used coloration to identify flies. This article presents a simple and non-invasive method for labelling Drosophila
that allows them to be individually identified within experiments, using food coloring. This method is used in trials where two males compete to mate with a female. Dyeing allowed quick and easy identification. There was, however, some difference in the strength of the coloration across the three species tested. Data is presented showing the dye has a lower impact on mating behavior than CO2
in Drosophila melanogaster
. The impact of CO2
anaesthesia is shown to depend on the species of Drosophila
, with D. pseudoobscura
and D. subobscura
showing no impact, whereas D. melanogaster
males had reduced mating success. The dye method presented is applicable to a wide range of experimental designs.
Neuroscience, Issue 98, Anesthesia, courtship, fruit fly, individual marking, individual tagging, male-male competition, mate choice, mate competition, mating latency, wing clipping
Straightforward Assay for Quantification of Social Avoidance in Drosophila melanogaster
Institutions: Yale University, York College/CUNY, Western Ontario University.
is an emerging model to study different aspects of social interactions. For example, flies avoid areas previously occupied by stressed conspecifics due to an odorant released during stress known as the Drosophila
stress odorant (dSO). Through the use of the T-maze apparatus, one can quantify the avoidance of the dSO by responder flies in a very affordable and robust assay. Conditions necessary to obtain a strong performance are presented here. A stressful experience is necessary for the flies to emit dSO, as well as enough emitter flies to cause a robust avoidance response to the presence of dSO. Genetic background, but not their group size, strongly altered the avoidance of the dSO by the responder flies. Canton-S and Elwood display a higher performance in avoiding the dSO than Oregon and Samarkand strains. This behavioral assay will allow identification of mechanisms underlying this social behavior, and the assessment of the influence of genes and environmental conditions on both emission and avoidance of the dSO. Such an assay can be included in batteries of simple diagnostic tests used to identify social deficiencies of mutants or environmental conditions of interest.
Neuroscience, Issue 94, social behavior, social avoidance, Drosophila melanogaster, Drosophila, Stress Odorant - dSO, T-maze apparatus, neurogenetics
Combining Magnetic Sorting of Mother Cells and Fluctuation Tests to Analyze Genome Instability During Mitotic Cell Aging in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Institutions: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
has been an excellent model system for examining mechanisms and consequences of genome instability. Information gained from this yeast model is relevant to many organisms, including humans, since DNA repair and DNA damage response factors are well conserved across diverse species. However, S. cerevisiae
has not yet been used to fully address whether the rate of accumulating mutations changes with increasing replicative (mitotic) age due to technical constraints. For instance, measurements of yeast replicative lifespan through micromanipulation involve very small populations of cells, which prohibit detection of rare mutations. Genetic methods to enrich for mother cells in populations by inducing death of daughter cells have been developed, but population sizes are still limited by the frequency with which random mutations that compromise the selection systems occur. The current protocol takes advantage of magnetic sorting of surface-labeled yeast mother cells to obtain large enough populations of aging mother cells to quantify rare mutations through phenotypic selections. Mutation rates, measured through fluctuation tests, and mutation frequencies are first established for young cells and used to predict the frequency of mutations in mother cells of various replicative ages. Mutation frequencies are then determined for sorted mother cells, and the age of the mother cells is determined using flow cytometry by staining with a fluorescent reagent that detects bud scars formed on their cell surfaces during cell division. Comparison of predicted mutation frequencies based on the number of cell divisions to the frequencies experimentally observed for mother cells of a given replicative age can then identify whether there are age-related changes in the rate of accumulating mutations. Variations of this basic protocol provide the means to investigate the influence of alterations in specific gene functions or specific environmental conditions on mutation accumulation to address mechanisms underlying genome instability during replicative aging.
Microbiology, Issue 92, Aging, mutations, genome instability, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, fluctuation test, magnetic sorting, mother cell, replicative aging
Sonication-facilitated Immunofluorescence Staining of Late-stage Embryonic and Larval Drosophila Tissues In Situ
Institutions: College of William & Mary.
Studies performed in Drosophila melanogaster
embryos and larvae provide crucial insight into developmental processes such as cell fate specification and organogenesis. Immunostaining allows for the visualization of developing tissues and organs. However, a protective cuticle that forms at the end of embryogenesis prevents permeation of antibodies into late-stage embryos and larvae. While dissection prior to immunostaining is regularly used to analyze Drosophila
larval tissues, it proves inefficient for some analyses because small tissues may be difficult to locate and isolate. Sonication provides an alternative to dissection in larval Drosophila
immunostaining protocols. It allows for quick, simultaneous processing of large numbers of late-stage embryos and larvae and maintains in situ
morphology. After fixation in formaldehyde, a sample is sonicated. Sample is then subjected to immunostaining with antigen-specific primary antibodies and fluorescently labeled secondary antibodies to visualize target cell types and specific proteins via fluorescence microscopy. During the process of sonication, proper placement of a sonicating probe above the sample, as well as the duration and intensity of sonication, is critical. Additonal minor modifications to standard immunostaining protocols may be required for high quality stains. For antibodies with low signal to noise ratio, longer incubation times are typically necessary. As a proof of concept for this sonication-facilitated protocol, we show immunostains of three tissue types (testes, ovaries, and neural tissues) at a range of developmental stages.
Molecular Biology, Issue 90,
Drosophila, embryo, larvae, sonication, fixation, immunostain, immunofluorescence, organogenesis, development
A Single-fly Assay for Foraging Behavior in Drosophila
Institutions: University of California-San Diego, Columbia University, Dart NeuroScience, University of Pennsylvania.
For many animals, hunger promotes changes in the olfactory system in a manner that facilitates the search for appropriate food sources. In this video article, we describe an automated assay to measure the effect of hunger or satiety on olfactory dependent food search behavior in the adult fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster
. In a light-tight box illuminated by red light that is invisible to fruit flies, a camera linked to custom data acquisition software monitors the position of six flies simultaneously. Each fly is confined to walk in individual arenas containing a food odor at the center.
The testing arenas rest on a porous floor that functions to prevent odor accumulation. Latency to locate the odor source, a metric that reflects olfactory sensitivity under different physiological states, is determined by software analysis. Here, we discuss the critical mechanics of running this behavioral paradigm and cover specific issues regarding fly loading, odor contamination, assay temperature, data quality, and statistical analysis.
Neuroscience, Issue 81, Drosophila, olfaction, neuromodulation, chemotaxis, hunger, nervous system, behavioral sciences
Assessing Differences in Sperm Competitive Ability in Drosophila
Institutions: University of California, Irvine.
Competition among conspecific males for fertilizing the ova is one of the mechanisms of sexual selection, i.e.
selection that operates on maximizing the number of successful mating events rather than on maximizing survival and viability 1
. Sperm competition represents the competition between males after copulating with the same female 2
, in which their sperm are coincidental in time and space. This phenomenon has been reported in multiple species of plants and animals 3
. For example, wild-caught D. melanogaster
females usually contain sperm from 2-3 males 4
. The sperm are stored in specialized organs with limited storage capacity, which might lead to the direct competition of the sperm from different males 2,5
Comparing sperm competitive ability of different males of interest (experimental male types) has been performed through controlled double-mating experiments in the laboratory 6,7
. Briefly, a single female is exposed to two different males consecutively, one experimental male and one cross-mating reference male. The same mating scheme is then followed using other experimental male types thus facilitating the indirect comparison of the competitive ability of their sperm through a common reference. The fraction of individuals fathered by the experimental and reference males is identified using markers, which allows one to estimate sperm competitive ability using simple mathematical expressions 7,8
. In addition, sperm competitive ability can be estimated in two different scenarios depending on whether the experimental male is second or first to mate (offense and defense assay, respectively) 9
, which is assumed to be reflective of different competence attributes.
Here, we describe an approach that helps to interrogate the role of different genetic factors that putatively underlie the phenomenon of sperm competitive ability in D. melanogaster
Developmental Biology, Issue 78, Molecular Biology, Cellular Biology, Genetics, Biochemistry, Spermatozoa, Drosophila melanogaster, Biological Evolution, Phenotype, genetics (animal and plant), animal biology, double-mating experiment, sperm competitive ability, male fertility, Drosophila, fruit fly, animal model
The Utility of Stage-specific Mid-to-late Drosophila Follicle Isolation
Institutions: University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine.
oogenesis or follicle development has been widely used to advance the understanding of complex developmental and cell biologic processes. This methods paper describes how to isolate mid-to-late stage follicles (Stage 10B-14) and utilize them to provide new insights into the molecular and morphologic events occurring during tight windows of developmental time. Isolated follicles can be used for a variety of experimental techniques, including in vitro
development assays, live imaging, mRNA expression analysis and western blot analysis of proteins. Follicles at Stage 10B (S10B) or later will complete development in culture; this allows one to combine genetic or pharmacologic perturbations with in vitro
development to define the effects of such manipulations on the processes occurring during specific periods of development. Additionally, because these follicles develop in culture, they are ideally suited for live imaging studies, which often reveal new mechanisms that mediate morphological events. Isolated follicles can also be used for molecular analyses. For example, changes in gene expression that result from genetic perturbations can be defined for specific developmental windows. Additionally, protein level, stability, and/or posttranslational modification state during a particular stage of follicle development can be examined through western blot analyses. Thus, stage-specific isolation of Drosophila
follicles provides a rich source of information into widely conserved processes of development and morphogenesis.
Developmental Biology, Issue 82, Drosophila melanogaster, Organ Culture Techniques, Gene Expression Profiling, Microscopy, Confocal, Cell Biology, Genetic Research, Molecular Biology, Pharmacology, Drosophila, oogenesis, follicle, live-imaging, gene expression, development
Dissection of Drosophila Ovaries
Institutions: Princeton University.
Neuroscience, Issue 1, Protocol, Stem Cells, Cerebral Cortex, Brain Development, Electroporation, Intra Uterine Injections, transfection
Purification of Transcripts and Metabolites from Drosophila Heads
Institutions: University of Florida , University of Florida , University of Florida , University of Florida .
For the last decade, we have tried to understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms of neuronal degeneration using Drosophila
as a model organism. Although fruit flies provide obvious experimental advantages, research on neurodegenerative diseases has mostly relied on traditional techniques, including genetic interaction, histology, immunofluorescence, and protein biochemistry. These techniques are effective for mechanistic, hypothesis-driven studies, which lead to a detailed understanding of the role of single genes in well-defined biological problems. However, neurodegenerative diseases are highly complex and affect multiple cellular organelles and processes over time. The advent of new technologies and the omics age provides a unique opportunity to understand the global cellular perturbations underlying complex diseases. Flexible model organisms such as Drosophila
are ideal for adapting these new technologies because of their strong annotation and high tractability. One challenge with these small animals, though, is the purification of enough informational molecules (DNA, mRNA, protein, metabolites) from highly relevant tissues such as fly brains. Other challenges consist of collecting large numbers of flies for experimental replicates (critical for statistical robustness) and developing consistent procedures for the purification of high-quality biological material. Here, we describe the procedures for collecting thousands of fly heads and the extraction of transcripts and metabolites to understand how global changes in gene expression and metabolism contribute to neurodegenerative diseases. These procedures are easily scalable and can be applied to the study of proteomic and epigenomic contributions to disease.
Genetics, Issue 73, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Neurobiology, Neuroscience, Bioengineering, Cellular Biology, Anatomy, Neurodegenerative Diseases, Biological Assay, Drosophila, fruit fly, head separation, purification, mRNA, RNA, cDNA, DNA, transcripts, metabolites, replicates, SCA3, neurodegeneration, NMR, gene expression, animal model
Quantitative Measurement of the Immune Response and Sleep in Drosophila
Institutions: University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.
A complex interaction between the immune response and host behavior has been described in a wide range of species. Excess sleep, in particular, is known to occur as a response to infection in mammals 1
and has also recently been described in Drosophila melanogaster2
. It is generally accepted that sleep is beneficial to the host during an infection and that it is important for the maintenance of a robust immune system3,4
. However, experimental evidence that supports this hypothesis is limited4
, and the function of excess sleep during an immune response remains unclear. We have used a multidisciplinary approach to address this complex problem, and have conducted studies in the simple genetic model system, the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster
. We use a standard assay for measuring locomotor behavior and sleep in flies, and demonstrate how this assay is used to measure behavior in flies infected with a pathogenic strain of bacteria. This assay is also useful for monitoring the duration of survival in individual flies during an infection. Additional measures of immune function include the ability of flies to clear an infection and the activation of NFκB, a key transcription factor that is central to the innate immune response in Drosophila
. Both survival outcome and bacterial clearance during infection together are indicators of resistance and tolerance to infection. Resistance refers to the ability of flies to clear an infection, while tolerance is defined as the ability of the host to limit damage from an infection and thereby survive despite high levels of pathogen within the system5
. Real-time monitoring of NFκB activity during infection provides insight into a molecular mechanism of survival during infection. The use of Drosophila
in these straightforward assays facilitates the genetic and molecular analyses of sleep and the immune response and how these two complex systems are reciprocally influenced.
Immunology, Issue 70, Neuroscience, Medicine, Physiology, Pathology, Microbiology, immune response, sleep, Drosophila, infection, bacteria, luciferase reporter assay, animal model
An Optimized Protocol for Rearing Fopius arisanus, a Parasitoid of Tephritid Fruit Flies
Institutions: US Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center.
(Sonan) is an important parasitoid of Tephritid fruit flies for at least two reasons. First, it is the one of only three opiine parasitoids known to infect the host during the egg stage1
. Second, it has a wide range of potential fruit fly hosts. Perhaps due to its life history, F. arisanus
has been a successfully used for biological control of fruit flies in multiple tropical regions2-4
. One impediment to the wide use of F. arisanus
for fruit fly control is that it is difficult to establish a stable laboratory colony5-9
. Despite this difficulty, in the 1990s USDA researchers developed a reliable method to maintain laboratory populations of F. arisanus10-12
. There is significant interest in F. arisanus
, especially regarding its ability to colonize a wide variety of Tephritid hosts14-17
; interest is especially driven by the alarming spread of Bactrocera
fruit fly pests to new continents in the last decade18
. Further research on F. arisanus
and additional deployments of this species as a biological control agent will benefit from optimizations and improvements of rearing methods. In this protocol and associated video article we describe an optimized method for rearing F. arisanus
based on a previously described approach12
. The method we describe here allows rearing of F. arisanus
in a small scale without the use of fruit, using materials available in tropical regions around the world and with relatively low manual labor requirements.
Developmental Biology, Issue 53, Biological control, Tephritidae, parasitoid, French Polynesia, insectary
Insulin Injection and Hemolymph Extraction to Measure Insulin Sensitivity in Adult Drosophila melanogaster
Institutions: State University of New York, University of Connecticut.
Conserved nutrient sensing mechanisms exist between mammal and fruit fly where peptides resembling mammalian insulin and glucagon, respectively function to maintain glucose homeostasis during developmental larval stages 1,2
. Studies on largely post-mitotic adult flies have revealed perturbation of glucose homeostasis as the result of genetic ablation of insulin-like peptide (ILP) producing cells (IPCs) 3
. Thus, adult fruit flies hold great promise as a suitable genetic model system for metabolic disorders including type II diabetes. To further develop the fruit fly system, comparable physiological assays used to measure glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity in mammals must be established. To this end, we have recently described a novel procedure for measuring oral glucose tolerance response in the adult fly and demonstrated the importance of adult IPCs in maintaining glucose homeostasis 4,5
. Here, we have modified a previously described procedure for insulin injection 6
and combined it with a novel hemolymph extraction method to measure peripheral insulin sensitivity in the adult fly. Uniquely, our protocol allows direct physiological measurements of the adult fly's ability to dispose of a peripheral glucose load upon insulin injection, a methodology that makes it feasible to characterize insulin signaling mutants and potential interventions affecting glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity in the adult fly.
Physiology, Issue 52, insulin injection, hemolymph, insulin tolerance test, Drosophila insulin-like peptide (DILP), insulin-like producing cells (IPCs)
Assaying Locomotor Activity to Study Circadian Rhythms and Sleep Parameters in Drosophila
Institutions: Rutgers University, University of California, Davis, Rutgers University.
Most life forms exhibit daily rhythms in cellular, physiological and behavioral phenomena that are driven by endogenous circadian (≡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.
Neuroscience, Issue 43, circadian rhythm, locomotor activity, Drosophila, period, sleep, Trikinetics
Operant Learning of Drosophila at the Torque Meter
Institutions: Free University of Berlin.
For experiments at the torque meter, flies are kept on standard fly medium at 25°C and 60% humidity with a 12hr light/12hr dark regime. A standardized breeding regime assures proper larval density and age-matched cohorts. Cold-anesthetized flies are glued with head and thorax to a triangle-shaped hook the day before the experiment. Attached to the torque meter via a clamp, the fly's intended flight maneuvers are measured as the angular momentum around its vertical body axis. The fly is placed in the center of a cylindrical panorama to accomplish stationary flight. An analog to digital converter card feeds the yaw torque signal into a computer which stores the trace for later analysis. The computer also controls a variety of stimuli which can be brought under the fly's control by closing the feedback loop between these stimuli and the yaw torque trace. Punishment is achieved by applying heat from an adjustable infrared laser.
Neuroscience, Issue 16, operant, learning, Drosophila, fruit fly, insect, invertebrate, neuroscience, neurobiology, fly, conditioning
Testing Nicotine Tolerance in Aphids Using an Artificial Diet Experiment
Institutions: Cornell University.
Plants may upregulate the production of many different seconday metabolites in response to insect feeding. One of these metabolites, nicotine, is well know to have insecticidal properties. One response of tobacco plants to herbivory, or being gnawed upon by insects, is to increase the production of this neurotoxic alkaloid. Here, we will demonstrate how to set up an experiment to address this question of whether a tobacco-adapted strain of the green peach aphid, Myzus persicae, can tolerate higher levels of nicotine than the a strain of this insect that does not infest tobacco in the field.
Plant Biology, Issue 15, Annual Review, Nicotine, Aphids, Plant Feeding Resistance, Tobacco
Studying Aggression in Drosophila (fruit flies)
Institutions: Harvard Medical School.
Aggression is an innate behavior that evolved in the framework of defending or obtaining resources. This complex social behavior is influenced by genetic, hormonal and environmental factors. In many organisms, aggression is critical to survival but controlling and suppressing aggression in distinct contexts also has become increasingly important. In recent years, invertebrates have become increasingly useful as model systems for investigating the genetic and systems biological basis of complex social behavior. This is in part due to the diverse repertoire of behaviors exhibited by these organisms. In the accompanying video, we outline a method for analyzing aggression in Drosophila whose design encompasses important eco-ethological constraints. Details include steps for: making a fighting chamber; isolating and painting flies; adding flies to the fight chamber; and video taping fights. This approach is currently being used to identify candidate genes important in aggression and in elaborating the neuronal circuitry that underlies the output of aggression and other social behaviors.
Neuroscience, Issue 2, Drosophila, behavior
A Rapid Technique for the Visualization of Live Immobilized Yeast Cells
Institutions: Princeton University.
We present here a simple, rapid, and extremely flexible technique for the immobilization and visualization of growing yeast cells by epifluorescence microscopy. The technique is equally suited for visualization of static yeast populations, or time courses experiments up to ten hours in length. My microscopy investigates epigenetic inheritance at the silent mating loci in S. cerevisiae. There are two silent mating loci, HML and HMR, which are normally not expressed as they are packaged in heterochromatin. In the sir1 mutant background silencing is weakened such that each locus can either be in the expressed or silenced epigenetic state, so in the population as a whole there is a mix of cells of different epigenetic states for both HML and HMR. My microscopy demonstrated that there is no relationship between the epigenetic state of HML and HMR in an individual cell. sir1 cells stochastically switch epigenetic states, establishing silencing at a previously expressed locus or expressing a previously silenced locus. My time course microscopy tracked individual sir1 cells and their offspring to score the frequency of each of the four possible epigenetic switches, and thus the stability of each of the epigenetic states in sir1 cells. See also Xu et al., Mol. Cell 2006.
Microbiology, Issue 1, yeast, HML, HMR, epigenetic, loci, silencing, cerevisiae
An Inexpensive, Scalable Behavioral Assay for Measuring Ethanol Sedation Sensitivity and Rapid Tolerance in Drosophila
Institutions: Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia Commonwealth University.
Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a serious health challenge. Despite a large hereditary component to AUD, few genes have been unambiguously implicated in their etiology. The fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster
, is a powerful model for exploring molecular-genetic mechanisms underlying alcohol-related behaviors and therefore holds great promise for identifying and understanding the function of genes that influence AUD. The use of the Drosophila
model for these types of studies depends on the availability of assays that reliably measure behavioral responses to ethanol. This report describes an assay suitable for assessing ethanol sensitivity and rapid tolerance in flies. Ethanol sensitivity measured in this assay is influenced by the volume and concentration of ethanol used, a variety of previously reported genetic manipulations, and also the length of time the flies are housed without food immediately prior to testing. In contrast, ethanol sensitivity measured in this assay is not affected by the vigor of fly handling, sex of the flies, and supplementation of growth medium with antibiotics or live yeast. Three different methods for quantitating ethanol sensitivity are described, all leading to essentially indistinguishable ethanol sensitivity results. The scalable nature of this assay, combined with its overall simplicity to set-up and relatively low expense, make it suitable for small and large scale genetic analysis of ethanol sensitivity and rapid tolerance in Drosophila
Neuroscience, Issue 98, ethanol, alcohol, behavior, sensitivity, Drosophila, fruit fly, assay