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An automated system for quantitative analysis of Drosophila larval locomotion

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Developmental Biology, February 2015
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Title
An automated system for quantitative analysis of Drosophila larval locomotion
Published in
BMC Developmental Biology, February 2015
DOI 10.1186/s12861-015-0062-0
Pubmed ID
Authors

Boanerges Aleman-Meza, Sang-Kyu Jung, Weiwei Zhong

Abstract

Drosophila larvae have been used as a model to study to genetic and cellular circuitries modulating behaviors. One of the challenges in behavioral study is the quantification of complex phenotypes such as locomotive behaviors. Experimental capability can be greatly enhanced by an automatic single-animal tracker that records an animal at a high resolution for an extended period, and analyzes multiple behavioral parameters. Here we present MaggotTracker, a single-animal tracking system for Drosophila larval locomotion analysis. This system controls the motorized microscope stage while taking a video, so that the animal remains in the viewing center. It then reduces the animal to 13 evenly distributed points along the midline, and computes over 20 parameters evaluating the shape, peristalsis movement, stamina, and track of the animal. To demonstrate its utility, we applied MaggotTracker to analyze both wild-type and mutant animals to identify factors affecting locomotive behaviors. Each animal was tracked for four minutes. Our analysis on Canton-S third-instar larvae revealed that the distance an animal travelled was correlated to its striding speed rather than the percentage of time the animal spent striding, and that the striding speed was correlated to both the distance and the duration of one stride. Sexual dimorphism was observed in body length but not in locomotive parameters such as speed. Locomotive parameters were affected by animal developmental stage and the crawling surface. No significant changes in movement speed were detected in mutants of circadian genes such as period (per), timeout, and timeless (tim). The MaggotTracker analysis showed that ether a go-go (eag), Shaker (Sh), slowpoke (slo), and dunce (dnc) mutant larvae had severe phenotypes in multiple locomotive parameters such as stride distance and speed, consistent with their function in neuromuscular junctions. Further, the phenotypic patterns of the K(+) channel genes eag, Sh and slo are highly similar. These results showed that MaggotTracker is an efficient tool for automatic phenotyping. The MaggotTracker software as well as the data presented here can be downloaded from our open-access site www.WormLoco.org/Mag .

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 73 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 2 3%
Australia 1 1%
Unknown 70 96%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 20 27%
Researcher 12 16%
Student > Bachelor 7 10%
Student > Master 6 8%
Student > Doctoral Student 6 8%
Other 17 23%
Unknown 5 7%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 27 37%
Neuroscience 17 23%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 11 15%
Engineering 3 4%
Unspecified 2 3%
Other 7 10%
Unknown 6 8%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 3. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 27 August 2015.
All research outputs
#13,566,023
of 23,881,329 outputs
Outputs from BMC Developmental Biology
#198
of 359 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#118,765
of 257,558 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Developmental Biology
#9
of 14 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,881,329 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 42nd percentile – i.e., 42% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 359 research outputs from this source. They receive a mean Attention Score of 4.5. This one is in the 44th percentile – i.e., 44% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 257,558 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 53% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 14 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 35th percentile – i.e., 35% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.