Abstract
We collected five sub-strains of the standard laboratory wild-type Drosophilamelanogaster Canton Special (CS) and analyzed their walking behavior in Buridan's paradigm using the CeTrAn software. According to twelve different aspects of their behavior, the sub-strains fit into three groups. The group separation appeared not to be correlated with the origin of the stocks. We conclude that founder effects but not laboratory selection likely influenced the gene pool of the sub-strains. The flies' stripe fixation was the parameter that varied most. Our results suggest that differences in the genome of laboratory stocks can render comparisons between nominally identical wild-type stocks meaningless. A single source for control strains may settle this problem.
Highlights
In our quest for understanding gene function, we commonly manipulate gene expression and compare the phenotypes of the manipulated versus control organisms
The C57BL, 129 and FVB strains are commonly used in mouse studies; N2 is the common control strain used in Caenorhabditis elegans; and Canton-Special (CS) is one of the most-used wild-type strains in Drosophila melanogaster genetics studies
We tested five different CS Drosophila melanogaster sub-strains in Buridan’s paradigm6–8), where flies walk between two stripes on a platform surrounded by a water moat
Summary
Any reports and responses or comments on the article can be found at the end of the article. – The Living Figure 4 is functional and accepting data submissions. The original CS_JB strain data, which was based on 15 min experiments, has been replaced with CS_JB data based on 5 min experiments (conducted by BB) to be in line with data collected from the other CS strains. – Figure 2 axes have been modified to PC1, 2 and 3. – The statement “The sub-strain differences were comparable...” in the 1st paragraph of the discussion has been clarified. – Included further details to the 1st and 2nd paragraph of the Discussion that suggest a stronger role of genetic, rather than environmental or epigenetic, effects. – Supplementary figures showing individual performance of each strain for each measurement have been included
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