Fish behaviour trajectories converted to usefulness

Zebrafish behaviour is a novel and upcoming endpoint in toxicity assessment of - at large - neuromodulating substances. This includes direct neurotoxicity as well as repellency and any other type of avoidance. Since zebrafish react to contaminants in the water at low nanograms per liter, behaviour measurement has the potential to be used for biological early warning systems.

However, usefulness of such data can be hampered by the independence of the distance moved (as one of the most common endpoints) from the trajectory's shape. A parameter is hence required to identify directed movement as an indication of avoidance behaviour.

In the W3-Hydro project we tested permethrin and cadmium as model substances using a Noldus DanioVision system. Obtained trajectories were converted to polar coordiantes and parametrized. Results showed that by this procedure pure distance-moved-data can be used to identify impact of contamination on zebrafish larvae behaviour. Read more on early detecting water contaminants Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety (fulltext temporarily free, then limited to subscribers, sorry...).