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A high-throughput assay for complex activity behaviors in Drosophila

Version 2 2016-03-22, 20:11
Version 1 2016-03-08, 22:07
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posted on 2016-03-08, 22:07 authored by Palle Duun Rohde, Lisbeth StrØm Madsen, Sandra Marie Neumann Arvidson, Volker Loeschcke, Ditte Demontis, Torsten Nygaard Kristensen

Fruit flies are important model organisms in functional testing of candidate genes in multiple disciplines, including the study of human diseases. Precise and well-defined phenotypes are a necessity in this respect. Here we propose a high-throughput locomotor activity assay for Drosophila melanogaster and decompose this trait into several distinct sub-traits. Insertional gene disruption mutants were used to investigate the impact of disruption of fourteen candidate genes for human attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) on fly behavior. We demonstrated that obtaining a range of measures describing the space of variables for behavioral activity, some mutants display similar phenotypic responses, and furthermore, that the genes that were disrupted in those lines had shared molecular functions. All but one of the candidate genes resulted in aberrant behavioral activity, suggesting involvement of these genes in behavioral activity in flies, providing additional support for the genes being risk candidate genes for ADHD.

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