Animals become progressively weaker as they grow older. The process behind the reduction in force production by the muscle is still poorly understood. Here, we use the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, and its extensive genetic toolkit to study changes in gene regulation and protein maintenance with age.
For this, we built a large arena called the Flydome, where flies can fly for long periods of time. To quantify their flight capacity with age we installed and synchronized 3 infrared cameras to record high frame rate videos of animals.
However, the large amount of insects, complex fly occlusion patterns and the sheer size of the raw data make reconstruction of 3D tracks a complex challenge. Knowledge of flight capacity and muscle function at different stages of life will help understanding of the underlying aging process.
To to solve this computational challenge, we identified the following goals:
Image processing and motion prediction to estimate 2D positions and displacements of flies in each of the 2D videos (see preliminary results in the illustration).
Reconstructing 3D positions and displacements from multiple views acquired simultaneously.
Long-term tracking, especially transitions from rest to flying, to quantify changes in flight capacity for each fly.
Comparing fly behavior at different stages of their lifespans (eg. how and how much do young flies fly compared to old ones)
FlyTrack A flydome to understand muscle aging
Animals become progressively weaker as they grow older. The process behind the reduction in force production by the muscle is still poorly understood. Here, we use the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, and its extensive genetic toolkit to study changes in gene regulation and protein maintenance with age.
For this, we built a large arena called the Flydome, where flies can fly for long periods of time. To quantify their flight capacity with age we installed and synchronized 3 infrared cameras to record high frame rate videos of animals.
However, the large amount of insects, complex fly occlusion patterns and the sheer size of the raw data make reconstruction of 3D tracks a complex challenge. Knowledge of flight capacity and muscle function at different stages of life will help understanding of the underlying aging process.
To to solve this computational challenge, we identified the following goals:
Image processing and motion prediction to estimate 2D positions and displacements of flies in each of the 2D videos (see preliminary results in the illustration). Reconstructing 3D positions and displacements from multiple views acquired simultaneously. Long-term tracking, especially transitions from rest to flying, to quantify changes in flight capacity for each fly. Comparing fly behavior at different stages of their lifespans (eg. how and how much do young flies fly compared to old ones)