Species Hub/Planarian/Gliding Locomotion + Scrunching
Primary Assay Planarian

Gliding Locomotion + Scrunching

Schmidtea mediterranea

Dual-gait analysis of normal ciliary gliding and the escape-specific scrunching gait. Scrunching — a recently discovered escape behavior — involves rhythmic body contractions at higher speeds than gliding.

Planarian — Gliding Locomotion + Scrunching

Measured Parameters

Every parameter is automatically tracked frame-by-frame in the ConductVision pipeline for Schmidtea mediterranea.

ParameterUnitDescription
Gliding velocitymm/sNormal ciliary locomotion
Scrunch frequencyHzEscape gait contraction rate
Scrunch amplitude% body lengthContraction magnitude
Gait transition latencysTime to switch from gliding to scrunching

Citations for Gliding Locomotion + Scrunching

  1. Cochet-Escartin O, et al. (2015). Scrunching: a novel escape gait in planarians. Phys Biol, 12(5), 056010. PMID: 26356147
  2. Sabry Z, et al. (2019). Pharmacological or genetic targeting of TRP channels can disrupt the planarian escape response. PLoS ONE, 14(12), e0226104. PMID: 31805147

Hardware for Planarian Research

Planarian Tracking Camera System

Automated phototaxis and locomotion

Chemotaxis Assay Plate

Gradient-based attraction testing

Dark/Light Choice Arena

Phototaxis preference

Thermal Gradient Plate

Thermotaxis assays

Regeneration Monitoring System

Post-decapitation behavioral recovery

Run Gliding Locomotion + Scrunching on ConductVision

Our team will configure the protocol, camera rig, and analysis pipeline for your planarian facility.