High-throughput analysis of stimulus-evoked behaviors in Drosophila larva reveals multiple modality-specific escape strategies.

ABSTRACT: All organisms react to noxious and mechanical stimuli but we still lack a complete understanding of cellular and molecular mechanisms by which somatosensory information is transformed into appropriate motor outputs. The small number of neurons and excellent genetic tools make Drosophila larva an especially tractable model system in which to address this problem. We developed high throughput assays with which we can simultaneously expose more than 1,000 larvae per man-hour to precisely timed noxious heat, vibration, air current, or optogenetic stimuli. Using this hardware in combination with custom software we characterized larval reactions to somatosensory stimuli in far greater detail than possible previously. Each stimulus evoked a distinctive escape strategy that consisted of multiple a

SUBMITTER: Ohyama T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3748116 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature