Investigation of Ovipositional Responses of Drosophila Melanogaster to Surface Modification Using Pdms Through-hole Membranes

Drosophila melanogaster is a widely-studied model organism in developmental biology. Oviposition is an important assay in fly studies which also should be controlled for experiments that study biological pathways through synchronized embryos. It has been used as an assessment tool to investigate biological responses to environmental cues, such as substrate textures, but in relatively uncontrolled manual manners. Microfluidics have recently been introduced to enhance accuracy and control in many Drosophila assays. Here, we have used microtechnology to study oviposition quantitatively in response to accurate and repeatable exposures to various desirable agar surfaces using a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-based through-hole membrane patterning technique.