Dataset Information

Frequent replenishment sustains the beneficial microbiome of Drosophila melanogaster.

ABSTRACT:

Unlabelled

We report that establishment and maintenance of the Drosophila melanogaster microbiome depend on ingestion of bacteria. Frequent transfer of flies to sterile food prevented establishment of the microbiome in newly emerged flies and reduced the predominant members, Acetobacter and Lactobacillus spp., by 10- to 1,000-fold in older flies. Flies with a normal microbiome were less susceptible than germfree flies to infection by Serratia marcescens and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Augmentation of the normal microbiome with higher populations of Lactobacillus plantarum, a Drosophila commensal and probiotic used in humans, further protected the fly from infection. Replenishment represents an unexplored strategy by which animals can sustain a gut microbial community. Moreover, the population behavior and health benefits of L. plantarum resemble features of certain probiotic bacteria administered to humans. As such, L. plantarum in the fly gut may serve as a simple model for dissecting the population dynamics and mode of action of probiotics in animal hosts.

Importance

Previous studies have defined the composition of the Drosophila melanogaster microbiome in laboratory and wild-caught flies. Our study advances current knowledge in this field by demonstrating that Drosophila must consume bacteria to establish and maintain its microbiome. This finding suggests that the dominant Drosophila symbionts remain associated with their host because of repeated reintroduction rather than internal growth. Furthermore, our study shows that one member of the microbiome, Lactobacillus plantarum, protects the fly from intestinal pathogens. These results suggest that, although not always present, the microbiota can promote salubrious effects for the host. In sum, our work provides a previously unexplored mechanism of microbiome maintenance and an in vivo model system for investigating the mechanisms of action of probiotic bacteria.

SUBMITTER: Blum JE

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3892787 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Frequent replenishment sustains the beneficial microbiome of Drosophila melanogaster.

Blum Jessamina E JE Fischer Caleb N CN Miles Jessica J Handelsman Jo J

mBio 20131105 6

<h4>Unlabelled</h4>We report that establishment and maintenance of the Drosophila melanogaster microbiome depend on ingestion of bacteria. Frequent transfer of flies to sterile food prevented establishment of the microbiome in newly emerged flies and reduced the predominant members, Acetobacter and Lactobacillus spp., by 10- to 1,000-fold in older flies. Flies with a normal microbiome were less susceptible than germfree flies to infection by Serratia marcescens and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Augmen ...[more]

PMID: 24194543

Similar Datasets

Project description:Endosymbiotic Wolbachia bacteria and the gut microbiome have independently been shown to affect several aspects of insect biology, including reproduction, development, life span, stem cell activity, and resistance to human pathogens, in insect vectors. This work shows that Wolbachia bacteria, which reside mainly in the fly germline, affect the microbial species present in the fly gut in a lab-reared strain. Drosophila melanogaster hosts two main genera of commensal bacteria-Acetobacter and Lactobacillus. Wolbachia-infected flies have significantly reduced titers of Acetobacter. Sampling of the microbiome of axenic flies fed with equal proportions of both bacteria shows that the presence of Wolbachia bacteria is a significant determinant of the composition of the microbiome throughout fly development. However, this effect is host genotype dependent. To investigate the mechanism of microbiome modulation, the effect of Wolbachia bacteria on Imd and reactive oxygen species pathways, the main regulators of immune response in the fly gut, was measured. The presence of Wolbachia bacteria does not induce significant changes in the expression of the genes for the effector molecules in either pathway. Furthermore, microbiome modulation is not due to direct interaction between Wolbachia bacteria and gut microbes. Confocal analysis shows that Wolbachia bacteria are absent from the gut lumen. These results indicate that the mechanistic basis of the modulation of composition of the microbiome by Wolbachia bacteria is more complex than a direct bacterial interaction or the effect of Wolbachia bacteria on fly immunity. The findings reported here highlight the importance of considering the composition of the gut microbiome and host genetic background during Wolbachia-induced phenotypic studies and when formulating microbe-based disease vector control strategies. IMPORTANCEWolbachia bacteria are intracellular bacteria present in the microbiome of a large fraction of insects and parasitic nematodes. They can block mosquitos' ability to transmit several infectious disease-causing pathogens, including Zika, dengue, chikungunya, and West Nile viruses and malaria parasites. Certain extracellular bacteria present in the gut lumen of these insects can also block pathogen transmission. However, our understanding of interactions between Wolbachia and gut bacteria and how they influence each other is limited. Here we show that the presence of Wolbachia strain wMel changes the composition of gut commensal bacteria in the fruit fly. Our findings implicate interactions between bacterial species as a key factor in determining the overall composition of the microbiome and thus reveal new paradigms to consider in the development of disease control strategies.

Dataset Information

Frequent replenishment sustains the beneficial microbiome of Drosophila melanogaster.

Unlabelled

Importance

Publications

Frequent replenishment sustains the beneficial microbiome of Drosophila melanogaster.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets