By: Gabrielle Branche
Introduction:
This lab aimed at understanding the circadian cycle of fruit flies. A circadian rhythm is a roughly 24 hour cycle in the physiological processes of living beings, including plants, animals, fungi and cyanobacteria. (Science Daily.com).
By exploring this process through observation, we could then acquire the skills needed to use observation to determine what biological processes can be adapted by robots.
The Process:
Upon entering the lab we were required to wear proper atire including lab coats and closed toes shows to ensure sanitary conditions. Additionally food was not allowed as it could have become contaminated by an escaped flies. Once prepared, we sedated the flies with CO2 and chose 8 males of a control species Drosophila fruit fly and 8 males of a mutated form of this same species. By using males for the experiment the chance of reproduction occurring during the testing period is avoided. Once collected the 16 flies were placed each in a vial that contained a food source and a ventilated cover. These vials were put in a monitor that measured their activity over the course of a week.
Results:
The results returned from the lab had the following format:
| 13 | 14-Apr-19 | 16:00:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 14 | 14-Apr-19 | 17:00:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 15 | 14-Apr-19 | 18:00:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 21 | 0 | 0 |
| 16 | 14-Apr-19 | 19:00:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 78 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 17 | 14-Apr-19 | 20:00:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 139 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 23 | 0 | 0 |
| 18 | 14-Apr-19 | 21:00:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 120 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 23 | 0 | 0 |
| 19 | 14-Apr-19 | 22:00:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| 20 | 14-Apr-19 | 23:00:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 21 | 15-Apr-19 | 0:00:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 22 | 15-Apr-19 | 1:00:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 41 | 0 | 0 |
| 23 | 15-Apr-19 | 2:00:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 25 | 0 | 9 |
| 24 | 15-Apr-19 | 3:00:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 35 |
| 25 | 15-Apr-19 | 4:00:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 29 |
| 26 | 15-Apr-19 | 5:00:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 27 | 15-Apr-19 | 6:00:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 89 |
| 28 | 15-Apr-19 | 7:00:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 37 | 0 | 64 |
| 29 | 15-Apr-19 | 8:00:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 32 | 0 | 0 |
| 30 | 15-Apr-19 | 9:00:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 |
| 31 | 15-Apr-19 | 10:00:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 32 | 15-Apr-19 | 11:00:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 119 |
| 33 | 15-Apr-19 | 12:00:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 34 | 15-Apr-19 | 13:00:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 67 | 0 | 38 |
| 35 | 15-Apr-19 | 14:00:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 142 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 42 |
| 36 | 15-Apr-19 | 15:00:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 52 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 95 |
| 37 | 15-Apr-19 | 16:00:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 67 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 31 | 0 | 76 |
| 38 | 15-Apr-19 | 17:00:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 98 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 37 |
| 39 | 15-Apr-19 | 18:00:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 127 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 81 | 0 | 36 |
| 40 | 15-Apr-19 | 19:00:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 25 | 0 | 0 |
| 41 | 15-Apr-19 | 20:00:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 108 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 42 | 15-Apr-19 | 21:00:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 127 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 151 |
| 43 | 15-Apr-19 | 22:00:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 129 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 0 | 0 |
| 44 | 15-Apr-19 | 23:00:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 27 | 0 | 0 |
| 45 | 16-Apr-19 | 0:00:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 27 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 |
See link for complete data set
The data was interpreted using the following key:
Column 1. Index at reading (from 1) Column 2. Date of reading Column 3. Time of reading. Please start from line 13. 16:00:00. From this time on all monitors are read once every hour. Column 4. Monitor status. 1= valid data received. Column 5 to 10 are not used in this experiment. Column 11. Channel 1 Column 12. Channel 2 … Column 42. Channel 32.
Reflection:
At first the data was a bit hard to understand but after applying certain filters I cam to the conclusion that there was some regularity in the action of the flies. By removing the times of days in which the majority of channels were inactive (reading was 0) the times were reduced to only 5-9 hours each day of activity. This implies that the fruit flies may have some sort of explicit circadian rhythm.
Nevertheless this data was still flawed in multiple ways. Many of the channels read 0 for the entire set which could mean that hat fly had died during set up. This greatly reduced to quantity of the data set. Moreover, in the set I could not distinguish which flies were mutated and which were the control. This could be a problem on my part for not fully understanding the data. However, this limitation prevents me from confirming with certainty our original hypothesis that fruit flies have a set distinct circadian pattern.
This lab was still very beneficial as it helped me understand the importance of biological observation. Now after conducting this lab I am able to apply the information discovered to further projects. The more we observe the natural patterns of organisms, the easier it will become to apply these patterns to robots which would result in more detailed accurate and robust machines.