title: Computational classification of different wild-type zebrafish strains based on their variation in light-induced locomotor response.
abstract: Zebrafish larvae display a rapid and characteristic swimming behaviour after abrupt light onset or offset. This light-induced locomotor response (LLR) has been widely used for behavioural research and drug screening. However, the locomotor responses have long been shown to be different between different wild-type (WT) strains. Thus, it is critical to define the differences in the WT LLR to facilitate accurate interpretation of behavioural data. In this investigation, we used support vector machine (SVM) models to classify LLR data collected from three WT strains: AB, TL and TLAB (a hybrid of AB and TL), during early embryogenesis, from 3 to 9 days post-fertilisation (dpf). We analysed both the complete dataset and a subset of the data during the first 30after light change. This initial period of activity is substantially driven by vision, and is also known as the visual motor response (VMR). The analyses have resulted in three major conclusions: First, the LLR is different between the three WT strains, and at different developmental stages. Second, the distinguishable information in the VMR is comparable to, if not better than, the full dataset for classification purposes. Third, the distinguishable information of WT strains in the light-onset response differs from that in the light-offset response. While the classification accuracies were higher for the light-offset than light-onset response when using the complete LLR dataset, a reverse trend was observed when using a shorter VMR dataset. Together, our results indicate that one should use caution when extrapolating interpretations of LLR/VMR obtained from one WT strain to another.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronic Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, 915W. State Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
authors.forename: Gaonan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronic Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Beth
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jelfs
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronic Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong; Department of Statistics, Purdue University, 250N. University Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Carmer
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, 915W. State Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
authors.forename: Prahatha
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Venkatraman
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronic Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ghadami
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, 915W. State Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
authors.forename: Skye A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Chi Pui
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Pang
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, 915W. State Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Indiana University School of Medicine-Lafayette, 625 Harrison Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA. Electronic address: yfleung@purdue.edu.
authors.forename: Yuk Fai
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Leung
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronic Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Electronic address: rosachan@cityu.edu.hk.
authors.forename: Rosa H M
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.affiliation: Joint Shantou International Eye Center, Shantou University & the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shantou, China. Electronic address: zmz@jsiec.org.
authors.forename: Mingzhi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000145:classification / Q000502:physiology; D008027:Light; D008124:Locomotion / Q000502:physiology*; D013045:Species Specificity; D060388:Support Vector Machine; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000145:classification / Q000502:physiology
keywords: Computational classification; Light-induced locomotor response; Support vector machines; Visual motor response; Zebrafish