Behavioral and molecular markers of death in Drosophila melanogaster.

Abstract

Fly movement was tracked through 3-dimensional (3D) space as the fly died, using either reflected visible light, reflected infrared (IR) light, or fly GFP fluorescence. Behaviors measured included centrophobism, negative geotaxis, velocity, and total activity. In addition, frequency of directional heading changes (FDHC) was calculated as a measure of erratic movement. Nine middle-aged flies were tracked as they died during normal aging, and fifteen young flies were tracked as they died from dehydration/starvation stress. Episodes of increased FDHC were observed 0-8 h prior to death for the majority of the flies. FDHC was also increased with age in flies with neuronal expression of a human Abeta42 protein fragment associated with Alzheimer's disease. Finally, green autofluorescence appeared in the eye and body immediately prior to and coincident with death, and fluorescence of GFP targeted to the retina increased immediately prior to and coincident with death. The results suggest the potential utility of FDHC, green autofluorescence, and retinal GFP as markers of neuronal malfunction and imminent death.

• Authors: John Tower, Siddharth Agrawal, Muthu Palaniappan Alagappan, Hans S Bell, Marton Demeter, Nitin Havanoor, Vinaykumar S Hegde, Yiding Jia, Suraj Kothawade, Xinyi Lin, Chaitanya Nadig, Naveen S Rajashekharappa, Divyashree Rao, Sanjay Subba Rao, Prathamesh Sancheti, Anuj Saria, Nagarabhi H Shantharamu, Vatsal Sharma, Karthik Tadepalli, Anuj Varma
• Journal: Experimental gerontology (Exp Gerontol) Vol. 126 Pg. 110707 (10 15 2019) ISSN: 1873-6815 [Electronic] England
• PMID: 31445108 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)
• Copyright: Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Chemical References

• Green Fluorescent Proteins

Topics

• Aging (physiology)
• Alzheimer Disease (physiopathology, psychology)
• Animals
• Behavior, Animal
• Death
• Disease Models, Animal
• Drosophila melanogaster (physiology)
• Female
• Flight, Animal (physiology)
• Fluorescence
• Gravity Sensing (physiology)
• Green Fluorescent Proteins (metabolism)
• Male
• Microscopy, Fluorescence
• Movement (physiology)
• Optical Imaging (methods)
• Retina (metabolism)
• Video Recording