Performance evaluation of a tiny insect muscle-powered bioactuator using gene modified Drosophila melanogaster's dorsal vessel tissue

We propose a novel bio-actuator powered Drosophila melanogaster's dorsal vessel. Insect cells are robust over a range of culture conditions compared mammalian cells. Therefore, micro-actuator powered D.melanogaster's dorsal vessel can be driven without precise environmental control. D.melanogaster is also well known to a model organism in genetic engineering, so its gene information has been achieved so far. Over the past a few decades, adoption and refinement of the GAL4 system by Drosophila field has resulted in a wide array of tool. So, we can control Bio-actuator's movement by using genetically modified D.melanogaster's dorsal vessel tissue. In this study, beating frequency and beating force of Wild-type dorsal vessels were measured to evaluate their performance. Their results showed the possibility of the bio-actuator powered by dorsal D.melanogaster's dorsal vessel.