the university of manchester faculty of life sciences the climbing assay: learning data analysis...
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The climbing assay:
Learning data analysis through live experiments with fruit flies..
..reflecting contemporary research into ageing and neurodegeneration
If you find this resource helpful and integrate (part of) it into your teaching, please, let us know by sending an informal email to: [email protected]
What are they?How are they different?Why are they different?
Starter task
They are Fruit Flies (Drosophila melanogaster).• Females are slightly larger • Females display dark serrated stripes at the posterior abdomen;
stripes are merged in males • Only males possess sex combs.
Starter task
By the end of the lesson I will have…
• ... learned to organise data into tables and graphs.
• ... learned to interpret data trends.
• ... have understood the importance of sample size.
• ... have learned about ..
.. concepts of ageing
.. concepts of neurodegeneration
.. principles of nervous system function
Learning outcome of this lesson
Introduction to the history & importance of Drosophila
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDbJnFLl3kU
1. What is the scientific name for Fruit Flies?
2. How many Nobel prizes have Fruit Flies contributed to?
3. Where did Fruit Flies originate from?
4. When did Fruit Flies supposedly enter America?
5. Who used Fruit Flies to first demonstrate a link between Mutation, Genes, Chromosomes and Inheritance.
6. How many flies can you keep on a few lab trays?
7. How quickly do flies become ‘Grandparents’?
8. True or False – Humans and Fruit Flies share many of the same genes.
What can you remember?
Why the fly?
9. Name at least 7 areas of research that Fruit Flies currently contribute towards.
75%
shared biology with humans
cheap
small
breed rapidly
less legal & ethical issues
Ageing and Mobility
What happens to our ability to move as we get older?
Assessing motor skills of old versus young
One vial (without mark):young flies
(<1 week; teenagers)
Other vial (no mark):old flies
(≥5 weeks; grandparents)
How to carry out the experiment
Carry out & document your experiment: tap flies to bottom, let them climb up for 15 seconds, take a picture in front of the scale
Analyse your data: enter numbers of flies in each of the height areas 1-10 for both sides, respectively
How to carry out the experiment
Now perform the experiment
Your hypothesis: I predict that older flies will …
Carry out the experiment(in parallel look at the activity sheet)
Now plot your data
Plot your results
Fly distribution across height segments
Height segments
Nu
mb
er
of
flie
s
Young fliesOld flies
Collect data across the course
data of all groupsyour own plot
Conclusion of the experiment
• What is the outcome?
• Why do older flies do less well than younger flies on the climbing assay?
Ageing and muscle degeneration
Age
All organs and systems in the body undergo age-related
degeneration
• Our muscles degenerate as we age.
• This affects our ability to jump high, run fast and lift heavy objects.
BUT why do some young people have
mobility issues?
The problem is not with his muscles!
Why can’t Professor Hawking move?
What controls our muscles?
The importance of the nervous system for motor behaviours
What happens if motor neurones are damaged or
lost?
Brain
Spinal cord
nerve /muscle
We often do not understand why neurons become
dysfunctional.
Drosophila research provides an efficient means to fill this
knowledge gap!
How would they perform in the climbing assay?
0.5
0.6
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D A Y 1 D A Y 7 D A Y 1 4 D A Y 2 1 D A Y 2 8
Clim
bing
Inde
x
Age of fl ies
CLI MBI NG ASSAYWild Type SOD1
Adapted from: Watson et al 2008
Drosophila and Motor Neurone DiseaseFruit Flies to the rescue!
Drosophila has motor neurons just as humans.
Bringing a ‘MND gene’ into flies affects their motor nerves.
These assays with MND flies can be used to find genes &
mechanism explaining the disease, or drugs to treat it!
Alternative or additional example of application:
Parkinson's Disease research(for explanations see the notes below slides)
Drosophila in Parkinson's disease research
Paul de Saint-Leger (1879)
• In Parkinson's Disease, primarily nerve cells in the midbrain (substantia nigra region) are being lost.
• these neurons contain the neurotransmitter Dopamine and are important for motor coordination.
modified from: Feany & Bender (2000)
Bringing a "Parkinson gene" into the fly brain, selectively kills dopamine nerve cells
normal plus α-synuclein
There are dopamine nerve
cells in the fly brain
modified from: Mao & Davis (2009)
Studying Parkinson's in Drosophila
These "Parkinson flies" lose climbing abilities earlier than
control animals
modified from: Feany & Bender (2000)
These assays are being used to
search for Parkinson-relevant
genes
Homework Task
Complete the worksheet provided
Plenary
1) Use bullet points to list what you did and what you learnt in this lesson.
2) What did you find most difficult to understand during today's lesson?
3) How would you explain these points to your class mates?
Acknowledgements
This resourse was generated by Patrick Strangward in the context of a BBSRC-funded internship for PhD students
School supervision and teacher support was provided by Catherine Alnuamaani, Trinity Church of England High School,
Manchester, UK
Academic, design & Drosophila-specific support was provided by Andreas Prokop and Sanjai Patel, Faculty of Life Sciences,
The University of Manchester, UK
Note that this resource was developed for the UK key stage 3 school level, but can easily be adapted to higher levels. Support documents for this teaching resource can be downloaded here:
dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1352064
If you find this resource helpful and integrate (part of) it into your teaching, please, let us know by sending an informal email to: [email protected]