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Fig. 7 | BMC Biology

Fig. 7

From: A multi-animal tracker for studying complex behaviors

Fig. 7

The Multi-Animal Tracker (MAT) is compatible with accurate high-throughput measurements of aging- and neurodegenerative-associated locomotion decline. a Synchronized CF512 worms were grown to 1, 4, 8, and 12 days of adulthood. An agar plug soaked with 1 μL of the repellent 2-nonanone (1:10 diluted in ethanol) was attached to the plate lid and worm movement was recorded 2 minutes thereafter for 1 minute. Analysis using the MAT showed constant aging-associated decline in mean speed. b Speed distributions within worm populations were unimodal, indicating that the mean value was not biased by a subpopulation of paralyzed or dead worms. The number of speed points in both (a) and (b) that we averaged on were 30,512 for Day 1; 23,672 for Day 4; 9401 for Day 8; and 6240 for day 12. c CF512 worms were grown to days 1, 6, and 12 of adulthood on either control bacteria (EV) or on daf-2 RNAi bacteria. Repellent was added and worm movement was analyzed as in (a). Analysis using the MAT confirmed that reduced insulin/IGF-1 signaling (IIS) slows age-associated motility decline. d AM140 worms expressing the aggregative polyQ35-YFP fusion protein were grown to days 2, 5, and 8 of adulthood on either control EV or daf-2 RNAi bacteria, and speed was scored as in (a). Note that x-axis is drawn to scale with panel c. Speed declines as worms age and proteotoxicity progresses, but reduced IIS slows motility decline. Error bars denote SEM of three biological repeats for panel a and four biological repeats for panels c and d. Each biological repeat consists of 2–3 replicate plates with dozens of worms per plate. Detailed data points are provided in Additional file 13: Table S1.* P < 0.05; ** P < 0.005; *** P < 0.0005

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