An automatic feeding system for the African killifish reveals effects of dietary restriction on lifespan and allows automatic assessment of reward-based learning behavior
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- The African turquoise killifish, Nothobranchius furzeri, is an exciting new vertebrate model for aging studies. However, a significant challenge for any new model is control over its diet in space and time. To overcome this issue, I created an automated and networked fish feeding system. This system is designed to be transferable, open-source, and built from widely-available components. Compared to manual feeding, this automated feeding system is considerably more precise and flexible. As a proof-of-concept for the feeding schedule flexibility of these automated feeders, I defined an optimal feeding regimen for growth and fertility for the African killifish, which I call "ad libitum" feeding, and a dietary restriction regimen where both feeding timing and quantity are reduced. I show that this ad libitum feeding regimen significantly increases growth in males and fertility in male/female pairs as compared to dietary restriction. However, I show that an overfeeding regimen which I also define increases growth while decreasing fertility compared to ad libitum feeding. I showed that the defined dietary restriction regimen robustly extends lifespan when compared to ad libitum feeding in males but not in females. I fit a Gompertz distribution to the survival curves of males fed either an ad libitum diet or a dietary restricted regimen and find that lifespan extension by dietary restriction results in a significant reduction in the "Rate of Aging" parameter. Combining this automatic feeding system with a video camera also allowed me to create an associative conditioning assay, which I validated using manual scoring. I then proceeded to implement an automatic scoring pipeline which allows for a high-throughput integrative measure of fitness and agrees with the manual scoring approach. The ability to precisely control feeding in the killifish opens new areas to explore lifespan dynamics, dietary interventions, drug delivery, and behavior in a high-throughput manner previously impossible with traditional vertebrate aging model organisms.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2020; ©2020 |
| Publication date | 2020; 2020 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | McKay, Andrew Scott |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Brunet, Anne, 1972- |
| Thesis advisor | Brunet, Anne, 1972- |
| Thesis advisor | Frydman, Judith |
| Thesis advisor | O'Connell, Lauren |
| Thesis advisor | Wyss-Coray, Anton |
| Degree committee member | Frydman, Judith |
| Degree committee member | O'Connell, Lauren |
| Degree committee member | Wyss-Coray, Anton |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Biology |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Andrew Scott McKay. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Biology. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2020. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2020 by Andrew Scott McKay
Also listed in
Loading usage metrics...