< Back to Article

CeleST: Computer Vision Software for Quantitative Analysis of C. elegans Swim Behavior Reveals Novel Features of Locomotion

Figure 4

CeleST reveals novel information on aging phenotypes.

A–J, Age-associated changes in swimming parameters in wild-type adults. A, Wave initiation rate; B, Body wave number; C, Asymmetry; D, Stretch; E, Attenuation; F, Reverse swimming; G, Curling; H, Travel speed; I, Brush stroke; and J, Activity index. from 9 independent trials, for each age day 4 and day 11. Data for ages ranging from day 4 to day 20 are presented in Figure S4. K–M, CeleST reports great differences in graceful agers vs. poor agers for measures that change with age. We selected animals that appeared to have robust crawling capacity (Class A, graceful agers) and those that had decrepit crawling capacity (Class C, poor agers) at day 11 and compared swim behavior. K, Activity index; L, Asymmetry; M, Attenuation. from 3 independent trials, for each class. Data for all ten measures in this series are shown in Figure S5. N, Locomotory changes under life-extending and progeric insulin signaling pathway manipulation suggest complex influences of signaling over the lifetime. Activity index, WT: blue line (middle dashed line); long lived age-1(hx546): green (top line); short-lived daf-16(mgDf50): red (bottom line). Note that the age-1 mutant has a higher activity index in young adult life as compared to WT, which suggests differences in swim performance are not limited to aging. Also, at day 15, WT and age-1 scores appear increased, which we suggest reflects the preferential death of the poorest swimmers, rather than an actual increase in average swimming of individuals. in each data point from 4 independent trials. Data on all measures are presented in Figure S6. Error bars show SEM, *** , **** .

doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003702.g004