Automated analysis of C. elegans behaviour is a rapidly developing field, offering the possibility of behaviour-based, high-throughput drug screens and systematic phenotyping. Standard methods for parameterizing worm shapes and movements are emerging, and progress has been made towards overcoming the difficulties introduced by interactions between worms, as well as worm coiling and omega turning. Current methods have facilitated the identification of subtle phenotypes and the characterisation of roles of neurones in forward locomotion and chemotaxis, as well as the quantitative characterisation of behaviour choice and circadian patterns of activity. Given the speed with which C. elegans has been deployed in genetic screens and chemical screens, it is to be hoped that wormtrackers may eventually provide similar rapidity in assaying behavioural phenotypes. However, considerable progress must be made before this can be accomplished. In the case of genome-wide RNAi screens, for example, the presence in the worm genome of some 19,000 genes means that even the minimal user intervention in an automatic phenotyping system will be very costly. Nonetheless, recent advances have shown that drug actions on large numbers of worms can be tracked, raising hopes that high-throughput behavioural screens may soon be available.

中文翻译：

---

线虫运动自动分析策略。

线虫行为的自动分析是一个快速发展的领域，为基于行为的高通量药物筛选和系统表型分析提供了可能性。用于参数化蜗杆形状和运动的标准方法正在出现，并且在克服蜗杆之间的相互作用以及蜗杆盘绕和欧米茄车削所带来的困难方面取得了进展。目前的方法促进了细微表型的识别和神经元在向前运动和趋化性中的作用的表征，以及行为选择和昼夜节律活动模式的定量表征。考虑到秀丽隐杆线虫在遗传筛选和化学筛选中的部署速度，希望蠕虫追踪器最终可以在分析行为表型方面提供类似的速度。然而，在实现这一目标之前，必须取得相当大的进展。例如，在全基因组 RNAi 筛选的情况下，蠕虫基因组中存在大约 19,000 个基因意味着即使是自动表型系统中最小的用户干预也将是非常昂贵的。尽管如此，最近的进展表明，可以跟踪对大量蠕虫的药物作用，这增加了高通量行为筛选可能很快可用的希望。000 基因意味着即使是自动表型系统中最小的用户干预也将是非常昂贵的。尽管如此，最近的进展表明，可以跟踪对大量蠕虫的药物作用，这为高通量行为筛选可能很快面世带来希望。000 基因意味着即使是自动表型系统中最小的用户干预也将是非常昂贵的。尽管如此，最近的进展表明，可以跟踪对大量蠕虫的药物作用，这增加了高通量行为筛选可能很快可用的希望。