Ethanol Behavioral Responses in Drosophila
- 1Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology Graduate Program, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, USA
- 2Department of Psychology, Bryant University, Smithfield, Rhode Island 02917, USA
- 3Center for Health and Behavioral Sciences, Bryant University, Smithfield, Rhode Island 02917, USA
- 4Department of Neuroscience, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, USA
- ↵5Correspondence: karla_kaun{at}brown.edu
Abstract
Drosophila melanogaster is a powerful genetic model for investigating the mechanisms underlying ethanol-induced behaviors, metabolism, and preference. Ethanol-induced locomotor activity is especially useful for understanding the mechanisms by which ethanol acutely affects the brain and behavior. Ethanol-induced locomotor activity is characterized by hyperlocomotion and subsequent sedation with increased exposure duration or concentration. Locomotor activity is an efficient, easy, robust, and reproducible behavioral screening tool for identifying underlying genes and neuronal circuits as well as investigating genetic and molecular pathways. We introduce a detailed protocol for performing experiments investigating how volatilized ethanol affects locomotor activity using the fly Group Activity Monitor (flyGrAM). We introduce installation, implementation, data collection, and subsequent data-analysis methods for investigating how volatilized stimuli affect activity. We also introduce a procedure for how to optogenetically probe neuronal activity to identify the neural mechanisms underlying locomotor activity.
Footnotes
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From the Drosophila Neurobiology collection, edited by Bing Zhang, Ellie Heckscher, Alex C. Keene, and Scott Waddell.
