How do you know if a fruit fly is hungry? Ask the computer.
It might sound like a bad dad joke, but it’s a reality at Tulane University. Researchers have developed a new AI tool that can tell whether fruit flies are hungry, sleepy, or singing (yes, fruit flies sing).
Called MAFDA (New Machine Learning-Based Automatic Fly Behavior Detection and Annotation), the system uses cameras and newly developed software to track and identify the complex interactive behaviors of individual flies within larger groups. To do. This allows researchers to compare and contrast the behavior of Drosophila with different genetic backgrounds.
For more than a century, scientists have used the fruit fly’s simple genome and short lifespan to decipher the mysteries of human genetics and immunity. Drosophila melanogaster Won 6 Nobel Prizes. Drosophila and humans share the same 60% of his DNA.
Previous algorithms had poor accuracy in tracking individual flies within a group, but the MAFDA system facilitated the study of small winged insects.
Drosophila is a pioneer in discovering new things, from the genetic theory of chromosomes to innate immunity. Being able to quantify fly behavior is a real step forward in behavioral research. ”
Dr. Wu-Min Deng, Corresponding Author, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Gerald & Flora Joe Mansfield Pilz Endowed Professor of Cancer Research, Tulane College of Medicine
Wenkan Liu, a medical graduate student who developed the MAFDA system, said the importance of the platform was “undeniable.”
“It speeds up research, minimizes human error, and provides complex insights into behavioral genetics,” Liu said. “This tool has the potential to be extremely important as it increases reproducibility and opens the door to new explorations in large-scale behavioral analysis.”
MAFDA was developed as part of a recent study that discovered that the gene that makes flies recognize pheromones is the same gene that controls pheromone production. These findings are scientific progresschallenge the current view that separate genes control pheromone production and perception and have broad applications in the fields of human behavioral evolution, metabolism and sexual dimorphism.
Researchers hope that MAFDA will be used for a variety of purposes in the future. Lead author and postdoctoral fellow at Tulane School of Medicine, Jie Sun, said MAFDA could eventually be used to study other insects beyond mice and fish, and the system could be used to study the effects of drugs. said it could help.
“The more information we can give the machine, the more accurately it will be able to identify different behaviors, from courtship to feeding,” Sun said. “This is a very important and meaningful tool.”
MAFDA is already being used in other Tulane research projects, and researchers are working to package the system for use by more scientists at Tulane and around the world.
“That’s the goal,” said Deng Xiaoping. “The original idea was to be able to identify health conditions in flies. It may be too much to ask for now, but we hope this will be used more broadly in the community.” I hope to be able to do something like that in the future.” Direction. “
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Reference magazine:
Sun, J. other. (2023) Integration of lipid metabolism, pheromone production and perception by Fruitless and hepatocyte nuclear factor 4. scientific progress. doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adf6254.
