Experimental procedure for food and drink monitoring.
Habituation. Six animals per genotype were taken from their home
cages and placed in experimental chambers named PHECOMP boxes (Panlab
and Harvard Apparatus) equipped with a food, drink and motor activity
monitoring system
(https://www.panlab.com/en/products/phecomp-system-panlab)
for two weeks of habituation. Animals were monitored in these boxes 24 h
a day during the whole experimental period.
Sucrose preference test. After a period of habituation, a sucrose
preference test was performed on the third week of PheComp cage housing
during one week, as previously described (Bura et al., 2010; Planaguma
et al., 2015). Two bottles of water, one with 2% sucrose and the other
without, were placed in the cage. The position of bottles were exchanged
everyday, and the consumption was measured after a 24h interval. The
preference for sucrose was calculated as the relative amount of water
with sucrose versus total liquid (water with and without sucrose)
consumed by the mice (Bura et al., 2010).