Enhanced assessment of contractile dynamics in Drosophila hearts

Anthony Cammarato, Shawn Ocorr, Karen Ocorr

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

19 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Drosophila heart has gained considerable traction as a model of cardiac development and physiology. Previously we described a semiautomatic optical heartbeat analysis (SOHA) method for quantifying functional parameters from the fly heart that facilitated its use as an organ system and disease model. Here we present an extensively rewritten version of the original SOHA program that takes advantage of additional information contained in high-speed videos of beating hearts. Program updates allow more precise quantification of cardiac contractions, increase the signal-to-noise ratio, and reduce the overall cost and time required to analyze recordings. This new SOHA version permits relatively rapid and highly accurate determination of subphases of contraction and relaxation. Importantly, the improved functionality enables the calculation of novel physiological data, suggesting that the fly model system may also be practical for screening drugs and alleles that modulate cardiac repolarization and force production.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)77-80
Number of pages4
JournalBioTechniques
Volume58
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 2015

Keywords

  • Cardiac
  • Contraction velocity
  • Drosophila
  • Myosin
  • Relative force
  • Thapsigargin

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biotechnology
  • Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology(all)

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