1Department of Neurology, Xin Hua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 202150, China
2Center for Stem Cell and NanoMedicine, Laboratory for System Biology, Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201210, China
3Institute of Neuroscience and State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China
4Department of Neurology, Xin Hua Hospital Chongming Branch Affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 202150, China
Corresponding authors: Fu-De Huang and Wen-An Wang. E-mail: huangfude@yahoo.com, wangwenan312141030@163.com

Abstract 

The negative-geotaxis climbing assay is used to efficiently study aging and neurodegeneration in Drosophila. To make it suitable for large-scale study, a method called the rapid iterative negative geotaxis (RING) assay has been established by simultaneously photographing the climbing of multiple groups of flies when they are manually tapped down in test tubes. Here, we automated the assay by using a well-controlled electric motor to drive the tapping, and a homemade program to analyze the climbing height of flies. Using the automated RING (aRING) assay, we found that the climbing ability of a strain of wild-type flies, males in particular, declined rapidly before day 21 after eclosion, but slowly from day 21 to 35. We also found that the expression of arctic mutant Aβ42 accelerated the age-dependent decline in the climbing ability of flies. Moreover, using aRING, we examined the effect of third chromosome deficiencies on the accelerated locomotor decline in Aβ42-expressing flies, and isolated 7 suppressors and 15 enhancers.

Keywords

RING; negative geotaxis; giant fiber; age-dependent; locomotor decline; Drosophila; beta amyloid

[SpringerLink]