biostudies-literatureUnknown12Niu MAnimals, from insects to humans, exhibit obvious diurnal rhythmicity of feeding behavior. Serving as a genetic animal model, <i>Drosophila</i> has been reported to display feeding rhythms; however, related investigations are limited due to the lack of suitable and practical methods. Here, we present a video recording-based analytical method, namely, <i>Drosophila</i> Feeding Rhythm Analysis Method (dFRAME). Using our newly developed computer program, FlyFeeding, we extracted the movement track of individual flies and characterized their food-approaching behavior. To distinguish feeding and no-feeding events, we utilized high-magnification video recording to optimize our method by setting cut-off thresholds to eliminate the interference of no-feeding events. Furthermore, we verified that this method is applicable to both female and male flies and for all periods of the day. Using this method, we analyzed long-term feeding status of wild-type and <i>period</i> mutant flies. The results recaptured previously reported feeding rhythms and revealed detailed profiles of feeding patterns in these flies under either light/dark cycles or constant dark environments. Together, our dFRAME method enables a long-term, stable, reliable, and subtle analysis of feeding behavior in <i>Drosophila</i>. High-throughput studies in this powerful genetic animal model will gain great insights into the molecular and neural mechanisms of feeding rhythms.Frontiers in genetics763200https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC8554052biostudies-literaturedFRAME: A Video Recording-Based Analytical Method for Studying Feeding Rhythm in <i>Drosophila</i>.PMC8554052Li WLi YZhang XNiu MWang JfalsedFRAME: A Video Recording-Based Analytical Method for Studying Feeding Rhythm in <i>Drosophila</i>.Animals, from insects to humans, exhibit obvious diurnal rhythmicity of feeding behavior. Serving as a genetic animal model, <i>Drosophila</i> has been reported to display feeding rhythms; however, related investigations are limited due to the lack of suitable and practical methods. Here, we present a video recording-based analytical method, namely, <i>Drosophila</i> Feeding Rhythm Analysis Method (dFRAME). Using our newly developed computer program, FlyFeeding, we extracted the movement track of individual flies and characterized their food-approaching behavior. To distinguish feeding and no-feeding events, we utilized high-magnification video recording to optimize our method by setting cut-off thresholds to eliminate the interference of no-feeding events. Furthermore, we verified that this method is applicable to both female and male flies and for all periods of the day. Using this method, we analyzed long-term feeding status of wild-type and <i>period</i> mutant flies. The results recaptured previously reported feeding rhythms and revealed detailed profiles of feeding patterns in these flies under either light/dark cycles or constant dark environments. Together, our dFRAME method enables a long-term, stable, reliable, and subtle analysis of feeding behavior in <i>Drosophila</i>. High-throughput studies in this powerful genetic animal model will gain great insights into the molecular and neural mechanisms of feeding rhythms.2021-01-01T00:00:00Z20212025-04-18T19:12:00.5Z2022-02-11T12:19:16.48ZS-EPMC85540523472154810.3389/fgene.2021.763200