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Measurement of Thermoregulatory Behavior in Drosophila melanogaster

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Behavioral Neurogenetics

Part of the book series: Neuromethods ((NM,volume 181))

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Abstract

Thermoregulation is a fundamental physiological function that maintains homeostasis in both endothermic and ectothermic animals. As a model organism, the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) has markedly contributed to the study of behavioral genetics. Behavioral analyses using Drosophila have revealed the sensory neurons, sensor molecules, and other factors including energy metabolism that are closely linked to thermoregulation. In this chapter, we describe the equipment and procedures required for analyzing thermoregulatory behavior in Drosophila. We also provide guidelines for the selection of strategies to analyze behavioral thermoregulation in Drosophila. In addition, we provide representative results obtained with these protocols and show that changes in preferred temperature can be induced by altering the unsaturation of membrane phospholipids.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Makoto Tominaga (National Institute for Physiological Science) for helpful discussion. We thank Toshiyuki Sazi (National Institute for Physiological Science) for creating the acrylic box for video recording. This work was supported by a Grant-in-aid for Scientific research 15H05930 (to M. U.), 15 K21744 (to M. U.), 20 K21388 (to M. U.), 21H02477 (to M. U.), 18 K05433 (to K.N), 21 K05391 (to K. N.), 21H02531 (to T. Sok.), 19 K23790 (for T. Sui.), and 21 K15192 (for T. Sui.) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Cell Signaling, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Okazaki, Aichi, Japan

    Takuto Suito & Takaaki Sokabe

  2. Department of Synthetic Chemistry and Biological Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    Masahiro Kai, Naoto Juni & Masato Umeda

  3. Thermal Biology Group, Exploratory Research Center on Life and Living Systems (ExCELLS), National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Okazaki, Aichi, Japan

    Takaaki Sokabe

  4. Research Institute for Mechanobiology, Organization for Research Initiatives and Development, Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan

    Masato Umeda

  5. Department of Biophysical Chemistry, Kyoto Pharmaceutical University, Kyoto, Japan

    Kohjiro Nagao

Authors
  1. Takuto Suito
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  2. Kohjiro Nagao
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  3. Masahiro Kai
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  4. Naoto Juni
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  5. Takaaki Sokabe
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  6. Masato Umeda
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Takuto Suito or Kohjiro Nagao .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Kobe, Hyogo, Japan

    Daisuke Yamamoto

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© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature

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Suito, T., Nagao, K., Kai, M., Juni, N., Sokabe, T., Umeda, M. (2022). Measurement of Thermoregulatory Behavior in Drosophila melanogaster. In: Yamamoto, D. (eds) Behavioral Neurogenetics. Neuromethods, vol 181. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-2321-3_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-2321-3_6

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  • Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-0716-2320-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-0716-2321-3

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