High-throughput screening of plant lines for resistance to pest insects
The EthoGenomics project focused on screening for host plant resistance to insect pest species. Video tracking provides the possibility to scale up the screening method largely.
The power of rejection (in fruit flies)
Fruit flies have amazing sense of smell. This includes the ability to navigate to a food source, as well as search out a preferred mate. However, there are other areas in which their olfactory systems come into play.
The use of video tracking in a HaXha test
When you get used to something, after a while you might not notice it anymore. Like a sent. The lab of Justus Verhagen investigated sniffing behavior with video tracking.
How fruit flies find your food (and mates!)
Those tiny flies that take over your garbage cans during the summer? They are called fruit flies for a reason! They have a fantastic sense of smell and these tiny creatures are a popular animal model for researchers.
EthoVision XT and the open field test
Imagine you are dropped in the center of a wide open field. Would you explore the entire area? Or hunker down around the edges, fearing predators and other unknowns?
How sleep heals the brain
We sleep a large portion of our lives. And now researchers have proven that it can heal the brain.
Serotonin and social skills: how adult mice differ from juveniles
Serotonin is a busy neurotransmitter, influencing processes as memory, mood, emotion, appetite, and sexuality. A prime role for this neurotransmitter is social behavior, across a variety of species; humans, rodents, primates.
Zebrafish provide key insights into alcohol addiction
Why is it that when people drink, only small subsets of individuals develop an alcohol addiction? Steven Tran from the Gerlai Lab tells us why zebrafish are very helpful in the search for the answer to this question.
Does pesticide resistance make malaria mosquitoes “smarter”?
In one of my previous blog posts, I wrote about the success of insecticide treated bed nets in preventing malaria. In the past five years, mortality from malaria has dropped with 60%.