The Drosophila Individual Activity Monitoring and Detection System (DIAMonDS)

Longevity biotechnology: bridging AI, biomarkers, geroscience and clinical applications for healthy longevity

The recent unprecedented progress in ageing research and drug discovery brings together fundamental research and clinical applications to advance the goal of promoting healthy longevity in the human population. We, from the gathering at the Aging Research and Drug Discovery Meeting in 2023, summarised the latest developments in healthspan biotechnology, with a particular emphasis on artificial intelligence (AI), biomarkers and clocks, geroscience, and clinical trials and interventions for healthy longevity. Moreover, we provide an overview of academic research and the biotech industry focused on targeting ageing as the root of age-related diseases to combat multimorbidity and extend healthspan. We propose that the integration of generative AI, cutting-edge biological technology, and longevity medicine is essential for extending the productive and healthy human lifespan.

A High-Throughput Method for Quantifying Drosophila Fecundity

The fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, is an experimentally tractable model system that has recently emerged as a powerful "new approach methodology" (NAM) for chemical safety testing. As oogenesis is well conserved at the molecular and cellular level, measurements of Drosophila fecundity can be useful for identifying chemicals that affect reproductive health across species. However, standard Drosophila fecundity assays have been difficult to perform in a high-throughput manner because experimental factors such as the physiological state of the flies and environmental cues must be carefully controlled to achieve consistent results. In addition, exposing flies to a large number of different experimental conditions (such as chemical additives in the diet) and manually counting the number of eggs laid to determine the impact on fecundity is time-consuming. We have overcome these challenges by combining a new multiwell fly culture strategy with a novel 3D-printed fly transfer device to rapidly and accurately transfer flies from one plate to another, the RoboCam, a low-cost, custom-built robotic camera to capture images of the wells automatically, and an image segmentation pipeline to automatically identify and quantify eggs. We show that this method is compatible with robust and consistent egg laying throughout the assay period and demonstrate that the automated pipeline for quantifying fecundity is very accurate (r2 = 0.98 for the correlation between the automated egg counts and the ground truth). In addition, we show that this method can be used to efficiently detect the effects on fecundity induced by dietary exposure to chemicals. Taken together, this strategy substantially increases the efficiency and reproducibility of high-throughput egg-laying assays that require exposing flies to multiple different media conditions.

Improvement of starvation resistance via periodic fasting is genetically variable in Drosophila melanogaster

Organisms subjected to periodic nutrient limitation early in life exhibit improvements in aspects of survival, including resistance to some environmental stressors. Recent findings indicate that forms of periodic fasting such as intermittent fasting and time restricted feeding can improve starvation resistance. However, it remains unclear to what extent this survival improvement persists across different genetic backgrounds. In this study, we examine fasting-induced starvation resistance across a broad survey of wild-derived lineages and document genetic variation within this trait. We adopt a standard dietary intervention and show improvement to starvation resistance within a common laboratory lineage, replicating previous results. Next, we examine fasting-induced starvation resistance across isofemale lines collected across latitudes and in different seasons, and among inbred lines derived from flies collected on different continents. We discover genetic variation of fasting-induced starvation resistance, and show that fasting improved starvation resistance as often as it worsened starvation resistance. Fasted flies generally showed reduced fat concentration, and their starvation survival varied with sex, season of collection, and geographic origin. While specific lineages common to the laboratory can show a specific fasting-induced phenotype, we show that this result is not consistent across genetic backgrounds, reinforcing the idea that phenotypes observed in historic laboratory strains may not be conserved across a species.

Fly Me to the Micron: Microtechnologies for Drosophila Research

Multicellular model organisms, such as Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly), are frequently used in a myriad of biological research studies due to their biological significance and global standardization. However, traditional tools used in these studies generally require manual handling, subjective phenotyping, and bulk treatment of the organisms, resulting in laborious experimental protocols with limited accuracy. Advancements in microtechnology over the course of the last two decades have allowed researchers to develop automated, high-throughput, and multifunctional experimental tools that enable novel experimental paradigms that would not be possible otherwise. We discuss recent advances in microtechnological systems developed for small model organisms using D. melanogaster as an example. We critically analyze the state of the field by comparing the systems produced for different applications. Additionally, we suggest design guidelines, operational tips, and new research directions based on the technical and knowledge gaps in the literature. This review aims to foster interdisciplinary work by helping engineers to familiarize themselves with model organisms while presenting the most recent advances in microengineering strategies to biologists.

A high-throughput method for quantifying Drosophila fecundity

Measurements of Drosophila fecundity are used in a wide variety of studies, such as investigations of stem cell biology, nutrition, behavior, and toxicology. In addition, because fecundity assays are performed on live flies, they are suitable for longitudinal studies such as investigations of aging or prolonged chemical exposure. However, standard Drosophila fecundity assays have been difficult to perform in a high-throughput manner because experimental factors such as the physiological state of the flies and environmental cues must be carefully controlled to achieve consistent results. In addition, exposing flies to a large number of different experimental conditions (such as chemical additives in the diet) and manually counting the number of eggs laid to determine the impact on fecundity is time-consuming. We have overcome these challenges by combining a new multiwell fly culture strategy with a novel 3D-printed fly transfer device to rapidly and accurately transfer flies from one plate to another; the RoboCam, a low-cost, custom built robotic camera to capture images of the wells automatically; and an image segmentation pipeline to automatically identify and quantify eggs. We show that this method is compatible with robust and consistent egg laying throughout the assay period; and demonstrate that the automated pipeline for quantifying fecundity is very accurate (r2 = 0.98 for the correlation between the automated egg counts and the ground truth) In addition, we show that this method can be used to efficiently detect the effects on fecundity induced by dietary exposure to chemicals. Taken together, this strategy substantially increases the efficiency and reproducibility of high throughput egg laying assays that require exposing flies to multiple different media conditions.

Road to sexual maturity: Behavioral event schedule from eclosion to first mating in each sex of Drosophila melanogaster

Animals achieve their first mating through the process of sexual maturation. This study examined the precise and detailed timing of a series of behavioral events, including wing expansion, first feeding, first excretion, and courtship, during sexual maturation from eclosion to first mating in D. melanogaster. We found that the time of first mating is genetically invariant and is not affected by light/dark cycle or food intake after eclosion. We also found sexual dimorphism in locomotor activity after eclosion, with females increasing locomotor activity earlier than males. In addition, we found a time rapidly changing from extremely low to high sexual activity in males post eclosion (named "drastic male courtship arousal" or DMCA). These behavioral traits leading up to the first mating could serve as clear indicators of sexual maturation and establish precisely timed developmental landmarks to explore further the mechanisms underlying the integration of behavioral and physiological sexual maturation.

Phenotyping of Drosophila Melanogaster-A Nutritional Perspective

The model organism Drosophila melanogaster was increasingly applied in nutrition research in recent years. A range of methods are available for the phenotyping of D. melanogaster, which are outlined in the first part of this review. The methods include determinations of body weight, body composition, food intake, lifespan, locomotor activity, reproductive capacity and stress tolerance. In the second part, the practical application of the phenotyping of flies is demonstrated via a discussion of obese phenotypes in response to high-sugar diet (HSD) and high-fat diet (HFD) feeding. HSD feeding and HFD feeding are dietary interventions that lead to an increase in fat storage and affect carbohydrate-insulin homeostasis, lifespan, locomotor activity, reproductive capacity and stress tolerance. Furthermore, studies regarding the impacts of HSD and HFD on the transcriptome and metabolome of D. melanogaster are important for relating phenotypic changes to underlying molecular mechanisms. Overall, D. melanogaster was demonstrated to be a valuable model organism with which to examine the pathogeneses and underlying molecular mechanisms of common chronic metabolic diseases in a nutritional context.

Noncanonical function of the Sex lethal gene controls the protogyny phenotype in Drosophila melanogaster

Drosophila melanogaster females eclose on average 4 h faster than males owing to sexual differences in the pupal period, referred to as the protogyny phenotype. Here, to elucidate the mechanism underlying the protogyny phenotype, we used our newly developed Drosophila Individual Activity Monitoring and Detecting System (DIAMonDS) that detects the precise timing of both pupariation and eclosion in individual flies. Although sex transformation induced by tra-2, tra alteration, or msl-2 knockdown-mediated disruption of dosage compensation showed no effect on the protogyny phenotype, stage-specific whole-body knockdown and mutation of the Drosophila master sex switch gene, Sxl, was found to disrupt the protogyny phenotype. Thus, Sxl establishes the protogyny phenotype through a noncanonical pathway in D. melanogaster.

The PEDtracker: An Automatic Staging Approach for Drosophila melanogaster Larvae

The post-embryonal development of arthropod species, including crustaceans and insects, is characterized by ecdysis or molting. This process defines growth stages and is controlled by a conserved neuroendocrine system. Each molting event is divided in several critical time points, such as pre-molt, molt, and post-molt, and leaves the animals in a temporarily highly vulnerable state while their cuticle is re-hardening. The molting events occur in an immediate ecdysis sequence within a specific time window during the development. Each sub-stage takes only a short amount of time, which is generally in the order of minutes. To find these relatively short behavioral events, one needs to follow the entire post-embryonal development over several days. As the manual detection of the ecdysis sequence is time consuming and error prone, we designed a monitoring system to facilitate the continuous observation of the post-embryonal development of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Under constant environmental conditions we are able to observe the life cycle from the embryonic state to the adult, which takes about 10 days in this species. Specific processing algorithms developed and implemented in Fiji and R allow us to determine unique behavioral events on an individual level—including egg hatching, ecdysis and pupation. In addition, we measured growth rates and activity patterns for individual larvae. Our newly created RPackage PEDtracker can predict critical developmental events and thus offers the possibility to perform automated screens that identify changes in various aspects of larval development. In conclusion, the PEDtracker system presented in this study represents the basis for automated real-time staging and analysis not only for the arthropod development.