Automated analysis of long-term grooming behavior in Drosophila using a k-nearest neighbors classifier
| Autor: | Victoria W. Allen, Sheyum Syed, Bing Qiao, Chiyuan Li, Mimi Shirasu-Hiza |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
0301 basic medicine
ethogram two-process 0302 clinical medicine Ethogram Biology (General) Grooming behavior in animals Social communication biology D. melanogaster General Neuroscience General Medicine Tools and Resources period Drosophila melanogaster behavior and behavior mechanisms Medicine Drosophila Systems biology Psychology psychological phenomena and processes Computational and Systems Biology circadian rhythm QH301-705.5 Science General Biochemistry Genetics and Molecular Biology 03 medical and health sciences Classifier (linguistics) Animals Circadian rhythms grooming Automation Laboratory Communication General Immunology and Microbiology business.industry FOS: Clinical medicine fungi Neurosciences biology.organism_classification Term (time) 030104 developmental biology General health business human activities Entomology 030217 neurology & neurosurgery Neuroscience |
| Zdroj: | eLife eLife, Vol 7 (2018) |
| ISSN: | 2050-084X |
| Popis: | Despite being pervasive, the control of programmed grooming is poorly understood. We addressed this gap by developing a high-throughput platform that allows long-term detection of grooming in Drosophila melanogaster. In our method, a k-nearest neighbors algorithm automatically classifies fly behavior and finds grooming events with over 90% accuracy in diverse genotypes. Our data show that flies spend ~13% of their waking time grooming, driven largely by two major internal programs. One of these programs regulates the timing of grooming and involves the core circadian clock components cycle, clock, and period. The second program regulates the duration of grooming and, while dependent on cycle and clock, appears to be independent of period. This emerging dual control model in which one program controls timing and another controls duration, resembles the two-process regulatory model of sleep. Together, our quantitative approach presents the opportunity for further dissection of mechanisms controlling long-term grooming in Drosophila. eLife digest From birds that preen their feathers to dogs that lick their fur, many animals groom themselves. They do so to stay clean, but routine grooming also has a range of other uses, such as social communication or controlling body temperature. Despite its importance, grooming remains poorly understood; it is especially unclear how this behavior is regulated. Fruit flies could be a good model to study grooming because they are often used in laboratories to look into the genetic and brain mechanisms that control behavior. Flies clean themselves by sweeping their legs over their wings and body, but little is known about how the insects groom ‘naturally’ over long periods of time. This is partly because scientists have had to recognize and classify grooming behavior by eye, which is highly time-consuming. Here, Qiao, Li et al. have created a system to automatically detect grooming behavior in fruit flies over time. First, a camera records the movement of an individual insect. A computer then analyzes the images and picks out general features of the fly’s movement that can help work out what the insect is doing. For example, if a fly is moving its limbs, but not the main part of its body, it is probably grooming itself. Qiao, Li et al. then borrowed an algorithm from an area of computer science known as ‘machine learning’ to teach the computer how to classify each fly’s behavior automatically. The new system successfully recognized grooming behavior in over 90% of cases, and it revealed that fruit flies spend about 13% of their waking life grooming. It also showed that grooming seems to be controlled by two potentially independent internal programs. One program is tied to the internal body clock of the fly, and regulates when the insect grooms during the day. The other commands how long the fly cleans itself, and balances the amount of time spent on grooming with other behaviors. Cleaning oneself is not just important for animals to stay disease-free: it also reflects the general health state of an individual. For example, a loss of grooming is associated with sickness, old age, and, in humans, with mental illness. If scientists can understand how grooming is controlled at the brain and molecular levels, this may give an insight into how these mechanisms relate to diseases. The system created by Qiao, Li et al. could help to make such studies possible. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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