Quantification of larval zebrafish motor function in multiwell plates using open-source MATLAB applications

Y Zhou, RT Cattley, CL Cario, Q Bai, EA Burton - Nature protocols, 2014 - nature.com
Y Zhou, RT Cattley, CL Cario, Q Bai, EA Burton
Nature protocols, 2014nature.com
This article describes a method to quantify the movements of larval zebrafish in multiwell
plates, using the open-source MATLAB applications LSRtrack and LSRanalyze. The
protocol comprises four stages: generation of high-quality, flatly illuminated video recordings
with exposure settings that facilitate object recognition; analysis of the resulting recordings
using tools provided in LSRtrack to optimize tracking accuracy and motion detection;
analysis of tracking data using LSRanalyze or custom MATLAB scripts; and implementation …
Abstract
This article describes a method to quantify the movements of larval zebrafish in multiwell plates, using the open-source MATLAB applications LSRtrack and LSRanalyze. The protocol comprises four stages: generation of high-quality, flatly illuminated video recordings with exposure settings that facilitate object recognition; analysis of the resulting recordings using tools provided in LSRtrack to optimize tracking accuracy and motion detection; analysis of tracking data using LSRanalyze or custom MATLAB scripts; and implementation of validation controls. The method is reliable, automated and flexible, requires <1 h of hands-on work for completion once optimized and shows excellent signal:noise characteristics. The resulting data can be analyzed to determine the following: positional preference; displacement, velocity and acceleration; and duration and frequency of movement events and rest periods. This approach is widely applicable to the analysis of spontaneous or stimulus-evoked zebrafish larval neurobehavioral phenotypes resulting from a broad array of genetic and environmental manipulations, in a multiwell plate format suitable for high-throughput applications.
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