Disruptions of circadian rhythms, sleep, and stress responses in zebrafish: New infrared-based activity monitoring assays for toxicity assessment

Behavioural disruptions are sensitive indicators of alterations to normal animal physiology and can be used for toxicity assessment. The small vertebrate zebrafish is a leading model organism for toxicological studies. The ability to continuously monitor the toxicity of drugs, pollutants, or environmental changes over several days in zebrafish can have high practical application. Although video-recordings can be used to monitor short-term zebrafish behaviour, it is challenging to videorecord prolonged experiments (e.g. circadian behaviour over several days) because of the darkness periods (nights) and the heavy data storage and image processing requirements. Alternatively, infrared-based activity monitors, widely used in invertebrate models such as drosophila, generate simple and low-storage data and could optimize large-scale prolonged behavioural experiments in zebrafish, thus favouring the implementation of high-throughput testing strategies. Here, we validate the use of a Locomotor Activity Monitor (LAM) to study the behaviour of zebrafish larvae, and we characterize the behavioural phenotypes induced by abnormal light conditions and by the Parkinsonian toxin MPP+. When zebrafish were deprived from daily light-cycle synchronization, the LAM detected various circadian disruptions, such as increased activity period, phase shifts, and decreased inter-daily stability. Zebrafish exposed to MPP+ (10, 100, 500 mu M) showed a concentration-dependent decrease in activity, sleep disruptions, impaired habituation to repetitive startles (visual-motor responses), and a slower recovery to normal activity after the startle associated stress. These phenotypes evidence the feasibility of using infrared-based LAM to assess multi parameter behavioural disruptions in zebrafish. The procedures in this study have wide applicability and may yield standard methods for toxicity testing.

Automated summary

Behavioural disruptions can serve as sensitive indicators of abnormal animal physiology and are valuable for toxicity assessment. Zebrafish, a small vertebrate, is a commonly used model organism for toxicological studies. This study validates the use of an infrared-based Locomotor Activity Monitor (LAM) to assess zebrafish behaviour, and demonstrates the feasibility of using this method to evaluate multi parameter behavioural disruptions in zebrafish. The findings have broad applicability and may contribute to the development of standard methods for toxicity testing.