High-Throughput Characterization of Region-Specific Mitochondrial Function and Morphology

• Published in: Scientific reports 2017-07, Vol.7 (1), p.6749-16, Article 6749
• Main Authors: Daniele, Joseph R., Esping, Daniel J., Garcia, Gilbert, Parsons, Lee S., Arriaga, Edgar A., Dillin, Andrew
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 13; 13/31; 14; 631/1647/2163; 631/80/642/333/1465; Aging; Aging - genetics; Aging - metabolism; Animals; Animals, Genetically Modified; Bioenergetics; Biology; Caenorhabditis elegans - genetics; Caenorhabditis elegans - growth & development; Caenorhabditis elegans - metabolism; Caenorhabditis elegans - ultrastructure; Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins - genetics; Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins - metabolism; Data analysis; Data processing; Escherichia coli - growth & development; Etiology; Flow cytometry; Flow Cytometry - methods; Fluorescence; Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; Genes, Reporter; Green Fluorescent Proteins - genetics; Green Fluorescent Proteins - metabolism; High-throughput screening; High-Throughput Screening Assays; Humanities and Social Sciences; Information processing; Intestines - ultrastructure; Luminescent Proteins - genetics; Luminescent Proteins - metabolism; Membrane potential; Membrane Potential, Mitochondrial - physiology; Microscopy; Mitochondria; Mitochondria - metabolism; Mitochondria - ultrastructure; Mitochondrial Dynamics - genetics; Morphology; multidisciplinary; Muscles - metabolism; Muscles - ultrastructure; Organ Specificity; Pharynx - growth & development; Pharynx - metabolism; Pharynx - ultrastructure; Red Fluorescent Protein; Regions; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Sensory Receptor Cells - cytology; Sensory Receptor Cells - metabolism; Software; Transcription; Transcription, Genetic; Visualization
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-05152-z

The tissue-specific etiology of aging and stress has been elusive due to limitations in data processing of current techniques. Despite that many techniques are high-throughput, they usually use singular features of the data (e.g. whole fluorescence). One technology at the nexus of fluorescence-based screens is large particle flow cytometry (“biosorter”), capable of recording positional fluorescence and object granularity information from many individual live animals. Current processing of biosorter data, however, do not integrate positional information into their analysis and data visualization. Here, we present a bioanalytical platform for the quantification of positional information (“longitudinal profiling”) of C . elegans , which we posit embodies the benefits of both high-throughput screening and high-resolution microscopy. We show the use of these techniques in (1) characterizing distinct responses of a transcriptional reporter to various stresses in defined anatomical regions, (2) identifying regions of high mitochondrial membrane potential in live animals, (3) monitoring regional mitochondrial activity in aging models and during development, and (4) screening for regulators of muscle mitochondrial dynamics in a high-throughput format. This platform offers a significant improvement in the quality of high-throughput biosorter data analysis and visualization, opening new options for region-specific phenotypic screening of complex physiological phenomena and mitochondrial biology.