Work

Bacterial Metabolism and Transport Genes Are Associated with the Preference of Drosophila melanogaster for Dietary Yeast

Year: 2022

Type: article

Abstract: Associated microorganisms ("microbiota") impact the physiology and behavior of their hosts, and defining the mechanisms underlying these interactions is a major gap in the field of host-microbe interactions. This study expands our understanding of how the microbiota can influence dietary preference for yeast (DPY) of a model host, Drosophila melanogaster. First, we show that fly preferences for a range of different dietary yeast:dietary glucose ratios vary significantly with the identity of the microbes that colonize the fruit flies. We then performed a metagenome-wide association study to identify candidate bacterial genes that contributed to some of these bacterial influences. We confirmed that disrupting some of the predicted genes, including genes involved in glucose transport and thiamine biosynthesis, resulted in changes to fly DPY and show that the influence of two of these genes is not through changes in dietary ratios of protein to glucose. Together, these efforts expand our understanding of the bacterial genetic influences on a feeding behavior of a model animal host.

Source: Applied and Environmental Microbiology

DOI: 10.1128/aem.00720-22

Authors: Tanner B. Call, Emma K. Davis, Joseph D. Bean, Skyler G. Lemmon, John M. Chaston

Institution: Brigham Young University

Language: English

Topic: Insect symbiosis and bacterial influences

Subfield: Insect Science

Field: Agricultural and Biological Sciences

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Institutes of Health, National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Awards: G3333129239, The causes of geographic variation in Drosophila melanogaster microbiota composition