Mind the Wound!-Fruit Injury Ranks Higher than, and Interacts with, Heterospecific Cues for Drosophila suzukii Oviposition.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Kienzle R
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8151711 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:While the majority of Drosophila species lays eggs onto fermented fruits, females of Drosophila suzukii pierce the skin and lay eggs into ripening fruits using their serrated ovipositors. The changes of oviposition site preference must have accompanied this niche exploitation. In this study, we established an oviposition assay to investigate the effects of commensal microbes deposited by conspecific and heterospecific individuals and showed that the presence of microbes on the oviposition substrate enhances egg laying of Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila biarmipes, but discourages that of D. suzukii. This result suggests that a drastic change has taken place in the lineage leading to D. suzukii in how females respond to chemical cues produced by microbes. We also found that hardness of the substrate, resembling that of either ripening or damaged and fermenting fruits, affects the response to microbial growth, indicating that mechanosensory stimuli interact with chemosensory-guided decisions to select or avoid oviposition sites.
| S-EPMC7890486 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Worldwide monitoring programs of the invasive fruit pest Drosophila suzukii Matsumura (Diptera: Drosophilidae), using fermentation baits like apple cider vinegar (ACV), revealed a counterintuitive period of low trap catches during summer, followed by an autumn peak. In this study, we demonstrate that ACV baited traps indeed provide a distorted image of the D. suzukii population dynamics as it is possible to capture higher numbers during this "low capture period" with synthetic lures. It was hypothesised that the preference of D. suzukii populations for fermentation cues like ACV is most pronounced during autumn, winter and spring, while the flies prefer fresh fruit cues during summer and that this seasonal preference is related to the changing physiology of the flies over the season. To test this hypothesis, the preference between fermentation cues (ACV) and host fruits (strawberries) and the effect of physiology (sex, seasonal morphology and feeding, mating and reproductive status) was investigated both in olfactometer laboratory experiments and a year-round field preference experiment. In olfactometer experiments we demonstrated that protein deprived females, virgin females with a full complement of unfertilised eggs and males show a strong preference for fermentation cues while fully fed reproductive summer morph females generally prefer fruit cues. These findings indicate that D. suzukii is attracted to fermentation volatiles in search of (protein-rich) food and to fruit volatiles in search of oviposition substrates. Winter morph and starved females displayed indiscriminating olfactory behaviour. In the field preference experiment, the hypothesised seasonal shift between fermentation and fruit cues was confirmed. This shift appeared to be highly temperature-related and was similarly observed for summer and winter morphs.
| S-EPMC6681279 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The worldwide invasive insect pest, Drosophila suzukii Matsumura (spotted-wing Drosophila), lays eggs in soft and stone fruit before harvest. Hatched larvae cause fruit collapse and significant economic losses. Current control methods rely primarily on foliar insecticide applications, which are not sustainable long-term solutions due to regulatory restrictions and the risk of insecticide resistance developing. We showed before that D. suzukii were deterred from laying eggs on artificial media previously visited by its sister species-Drosophila melanogaster. In the current study, laboratory choice test experiments were conducted to identify which D. melanogaster life stage (eggs, larvae, or adult) deterred D. suzukii oviposition. We demonstrated that the presence of live D. melanogaster larvae on the egg-laying media consistently deterred D. suzukii oviposition. Drosophila melanogaster cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) were examined as candidate for the oviposition deterrent. CHCs of larval and adult D. melanogaster and D. suzukii were analyzed. In both species, the composition of the CHCs of larvae was similar to that of adults, although quantities present were much lower. Furthermore, the CHC profiles of the two species were markedly different. However, when assayed as deterrents in the laboratory choice test experiment, CHC extracts from D. melanogaster did not deter oviposition by D. suzukii.
| S-EPMC9408982 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The oviposition choice of an insect herbivore is based on a complex set of stimuli and responses. In this study, we examined the effect of plant secondary chemistry (the iridoid glycosides aucubin and catalpol) and aspects of size of the plant Plantago lanceolata, on the oviposition behavior of the specialist butterfly Melitaea cinxia. Iridoid glycosides are known to deter feeding or decrease the growth rate of generalist insect herbivores, but can act as oviposition cues and feeding stimulants for specialized herbivores. In a previous observational study of M. cinxia in the field, oviposition was associated with high levels of aucubin. However, this association could have been the cause (butterfly choice) or consequence (plant induction) of oviposition. We conducted a set of dual- and multiple-choice experiments in cages and in the field. In the cages, we found a positive association between the pre-oviposition level of aucubin and the number of ovipositions. The association reflects the butterfly oviposition selection rather than plant induction that follows oviposition. Our results also suggest a threshold concentration below which females do not distinguish between levels of iridoid glycosides. In the field, the size of the plant appeared to be a more important stimulus than iridoid glycoside content, with bigger plants receiving more oviposition than smaller plants, regardless of their secondary chemistry. Our results illustrate that the rank of a cue used for oviposition may be dependent on environmental context.
| S-EPMC2518948 | biostudies-other
Project description:Flower-foraging Japanese yellow swallowtail butterflies, Papilio xuthus, exhibit sophisticated visual abilities. When ovipositing, females presumably attempt to select suitable leaves to support the growth of their larval offspring. We first established that butterflies indeed select particular leaves on which to lay eggs; when presented with a single Citrus tree, butterflies significantly favored two out of 102 leaves for oviposition. These preferences were observed across many individuals, implying that they were not merely idiosyncratic, but rather based on properties of the leaves in question. Because the butterflies descended towards the leaves rather directly from a distance, we hypothesized that they base their selection on visual cues. We measured five morphological properties (height, orientation, flatness, roundness, and size) and four reflective features (green reflectance, brightness, and degree and angle of linear polarization). We found that the number of eggs laid upon a leaf was positively correlated with its height, flatness, green reflectance, and brightness, and negatively correlated with its degree of polarization, indicating that these features may serve as cues for leaf selection. Considering that other studies report ovipositing butterflies' preference for green color and horizontally polarized light, butterflies likely use multiple visual features to select egg-laying sites on the host plant.
| S-EPMC8622024 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae) is an invasive pest of a wide range of commercial soft-skinned fruits. To date, most management tactics are based on spraying of conventional and/or organic insecticides, baited traps, and netting exclusion. Interest has been expressed in using the sterile insect technique (SIT) as part of area-wide integrated pest management (AW-IPM) programs to control D. suzukii infestations. Mass-rearing protocols are one of the prerequisites for successful implementation of the SIT. To establish mass-rearing methods for this species, two different egg-collection systems were developed and compared with respect to the number of eggs produced, egg viability, pupa and adult recovery, adult emergence rate, and flight ability. Female flies kept in cages equipped with a wax panel produced significantly more eggs with higher viability and adult emergence rate, as compared to the netted oviposition system. The wax panel system was also more practical and less laborious regarding the collection of eggs. Furthermore, the wax panel oviposition system can be adapted to any size or design of an adult cage. In conclusion, this system bears great promise as an effective system for the mass production of D. suzukii for SIT.
| S-EPMC6956338 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The invasive pest fruit fly Drosophila suzukii is thought to be a specialist on healthy, i.e. unwounded, non-fermenting fruits. Morphological (sharp ovipositor) and neurophysiological/behavioural adaptations have been suggested to contribute to distinct adult feeding (wounded/microbe-laden fruits) and reproductive (healthy fruits) sites. We tested whether (1) variation in the overall availability of fruits, (2) variation in fruit type (healthy, wounded, fermenting), and (3) the relative abundance of different fruit types are ecological determinants of D. suzukii egg-laying decisions. Even though individual flies reduced their reproductive output when resource availability (blueberries) was low, a significantly higher proportion of eggs was allocated to healthy fruits, relative to wounded and fermenting fruits. However, the preference for healthy over wounded fruits declined continuously with a decrease in the relative abundance of healthy fruits and the overall reproductive output did not change. Under laboratory conditions, D. suzukii larvae achieved a higher developmental success on wounded than on healthy blueberries, but suffered less from density-dependent competition in healthy fruits. These data suggest that D. suzukii, despite showing an egg-laying preference for healthy fruits, also uses wounded/fermenting fruits as egg-laying sites, and that it may thrive well in windfall fruits.
| S-EPMC7035383 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Insects' host preferences are regulated by multiple factors whose interactions are only partly understood. Here we make use of an in-depth, untargeted metabolomic approach combining molecular networking (MN) and supervised Analysis of variance Multiblock Orthogonal Partial Least Squares (AMOPLS) to untangle egg-laying preferences of Drosophila suzukii, an invasive, highly polyphagous and destructive fruit pest originating from Southeast Asia. Based on behavioural experiments in the laboratory as well as field observation, we selected eight genetically related Vitis vinifera cultivars (e.g., Ancellotta, Galotta, Gamaret, Gamay, Gamay précoce, Garanoir, Mara and Reichensteiner) exhibiting significant differences in their susceptibility toward D. suzukii. The two most and the two least attractive red cultivars were chosen for further metabolomic analyses of their grape skins. The combination of MN and statistical AMOPLS findings with semi-quantitative detection information enabled us to identify flavonoids as interesting markers for differences in the attractiveness of the four studied grape cultivars towards D. suzukii. Overall, dihydroflavonols were accumulated in unattractive grape cultivars, while attractive grape cultivars were richer in flavonols. Crucially, both dihydroflavonols and flavonols were abundant metabolites in the semi-quantitative analysis of the extracted molecules from the grape skin. We discuss how these two flavonoid classes might influence the egg-laying behaviour of D. suzukii females and how they could serve as potential markers for D. suzukii infestations in grapes that can be potentially extended to other fruits. We believe that our novel, integrated analytical approach could also be applied to the study of other biological relationships characterised by multiple evolving parameters.
| S-EPMC11371706 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundAs global climate change and exponential human population growth intensifies pressure on agricultural systems, the need to effectively manage invasive insect pests is becoming increasingly important to global food security. Drosophila suzukii is an invasive pest that drastically expanded its global range in a very short time since 2008, spreading to most areas in North America and many countries in Europe and South America. Preliminary ecological modeling predicted a more restricted distribution and, for this reason, the invasion of D. suzukii to northern temperate regions is especially unexpected. Investigating D. suzukii phenology and seasonal adaptations can lead to a better understanding of the mechanisms through which insects express phenotypic plasticity, which likely enables invasive species to successfully colonize a wide range of environments.ResultsWe describe seasonal phenotypic plasticity in field populations of D. suzukii. Specifically, we observed a trend of higher proportions of flies with the winter morph phenotype, characterized by darker pigmentation and longer wing length, as summer progresses to winter. A laboratory-simulated winter photoperiod and temperature (12:12 L:D and 10 °C) were sufficient to induce the winter morph phenotype in D. suzukii. This winter morph is associated with increased survival at 1 °C when compared to the summer morph, thus explaining the ability of D. suzukii to survive cold winters. We then used RNA sequencing to identify gene expression differences underlying seasonal differences in D. suzukii physiology. Winter morph gene expression is consistent with known mechanisms of cold-hardening such as adjustments to ion transport and up-regulation of carbohydrate metabolism. In addition, transcripts involved in oogenesis and DNA replication were down-regulated in the winter morph, providing the first molecular evidence of a reproductive diapause in D. suzukii.ConclusionsTo date, D. suzukii cold resistance studies suggest that this species cannot overwinter in northern locations, e.g. Canada, even though they are established pests in these regions. Combining physiological investigations with RNA sequencing, we present potential mechanisms by which D. suzukii can overwinter in these regions. This work may contribute to more accurate population models that incorporate seasonal variation in physiological parameters, leading to development of better management strategies.
| S-EPMC4802914 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Understanding how species adapt to new niches is a central issue in evolutionary ecology. Nutrition is vital for the survival of all organisms and impacts species fitness and distribution. While most Drosophila species exploit rotting plant parts, some species have diversified to use ripe fruit, allowing earlier colonization. The decomposition of plant material is facilitated by yeast colonization and proliferation. These yeasts serve as the main protein source for Drosophila larvae. This dynamic rotting process entails changes in the nutritional composition of the food and other properties, and animals feeding on material at different stages of decay are expected to have behavioural and nutritional adaptations.We compared larval performance, feeding behaviour and adult oviposition site choice between the ripe fruit colonizer and invasive pest Drosophila suzukii, and a closely-related rotting fruit colonizer, Drosophila biarmipes. Through the manipulation of protein:carbohydrate ratios in artificial diets, we found that D. suzukii larvae perform better at lower protein concentrations and consume less protein rich diets relative to D. biarmipes. For adult oviposition, these species differed in preference for substrate hardness, but not for the substrate nutritional composition.Our findings highlight that rather than being an exclusive specialist on ripe fruit, D. suzukii's adaptation to use ripening fruit allow it to colonize a wider range of food substrates than D. biarmipes, which is limited to soft foods with higher protein concentrations. Our results underscore the importance of nutritional performance and feeding behaviours in the colonization of new food niches.
| S-EPMC5463304 | biostudies-literature