A Long-Term Drosophila Body Mass Measurement System

Li, Y.; Feng, D.; Li, W.

doi:10.1101/2025.05.29.656772

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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2025.05.29.656772

A Long-Term Drosophila Body Mass Measurement System

Li, Y.·Feng, D.·Li, W.

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Abstract

We propose a novel system for long-term monitoring of Drosophila body mass. In this approach, a cantilever beam is placed inside a Drosophila culture vial and undergoes random vibrations induced by Drosophila landings. An infrared camera connected to a microcomputer records these vibrations. Image processing techniques then extract the beams vibration signals from the video recordings. Applying the Euler-Bernoulli beam theory, we calculate the Drosophila body mass. As a demonstration, we used this system to measure body mass variations in wild-type Drosophila over 14 days. Summary statementThis study presents a system that enables long-term monitoring of fruit fly body mass, offering new opportunities to study relationships between genes, circadian rhythms, phenotype, and long-term mass variation.

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Li, Y., Feng, D., Li, W.. 2025-06-01. A Long-Term Drosophila Body Mass Measurement System. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.05.29.656772

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