Bellymount enables longitudinal, intravital imaging of abdominal organs and the gut microbiota in adult Drosophila

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000567
• Publication Date: 2020-01-27T13:35:22Z
• Authors: Leslie Ann Jarami...; Andrés Aranda-Díaz; Yu-Han Su; Shruthi Balachandra; Judy Lisette Martin; William B. Ludington; Kerwyn Casey Huang; Lucy Erin O’Brien
• Keywords: Intravital microscopy

Cell- and tissue-level processes often occur across days or weeks, but few imaging methods can capture such long timescales. Here, we describe Bellymount, a simple, noninvasive method for longitudinal of the Drosophila abdomen at subcellular resolution. Bellymounted animals remain live intact, so same individual be imaged serially to yield vivid time series multiday processes. This feature opens door studies internal organs in their native context. Exploiting Bellymount's capabilities, track intestinal stem cell lineages gut microbial colonization single animals, revealing spatiotemporal dynamics undetectable by previously available methods.