Drosophila Aggression Assay: A Method to Test Behavioral Plasticity in Flies

Abstract

Source: Trannoy, S., et al. A New Approach that Eliminates Handling for Studying Aggression and the "Loser" Effect in Drosophila melanogaster. J. Vis. Exp. (2015).

Aggression is an innate behavior and previous fighting experience affects fighting strategy and outcome of later contests in flies. This video describes an assay used to study Drosophila's aggressive behavior. The example protocol features the assay performed in a setup that eliminates fly handling and therefore reduces stress for the animals, which would otherwise impact the subjects' performance.

Protocol

This protocol is an excerpt from Trannoy et al., A New Approach that Eliminates Handling for Studying Aggression and the "Loser" Effect in Drosophila melanogaster, J. Vis. Exp. (2015). 1. Behavioral Experiment Perform the behavioral experiments with 6-7-day-old male flies. Insert plastic dividers into each fighting chamber. Remove the cotton plug from the isolation tube and position the tube below an open hole on the …

Materials

Behavioral chambers	Mike machine		Fabricated in-house. Directly contact the company for more information.
Borosilicate glass vials	VWR International	47729-576	16 x 10 mm
Cotton	Fisherbrand	22-456-881	Any brand can be used
Srew cap tube	VWR International	10011-394	15 mm diameter, 10 mm height
Plastic slices	Electron Microscopy Sciences	70329-40	22 x 40 x 0.25 mm Thickness
Light source (bulb)	VWR International	500003-418	Any brand can be used
Timer	VWR International	62344-641	Any brand can be used
Binocular	Nikon	SMZ-745	Any brand can be used
Camera (SONY Handycam HDR-CX330)	B&H	SOHDRCX330B	Any brand can be used